Keyblade Princess
by C.B. Magique
Summary: [Princess Story sequel] Keen to test the limits of her Princess of Heart powers, Kairi is prepared to take the reins of her own adventure. She's resolved to be just as ready as her boys for whatever comes next and perhaps she can restore the hearts and memories that have been lost. Although an old enemy returns with a vendetta, a forgotten friend appears to guide the way.
1. Let Go

**Why, hello! Don't mind me casually uploading a sequel to a story I finished writing 2 years ago. It's been in the planning stage for a while and stagnated there while I adamantly refused to publish it as long as Altered Memories remained incomplete. But AM is complete now and I am going to be freely updating this for the next however long it takes to write.**

 **So, just a little housekeeping: this is the perhaps-maybe-very-long-awaited sequel to Princess Story, a Kairi/Zexion fic that's kinda canon divergent and this fic will only diverge even more. I know Princess Story is very long but it is unfortunately required reading for this fic. There are also some side-stories scattered over my profile that aren't required reading but I may refer to them in future chapters. They're mostly just cute and have no real plot relevance. Thirdly, Princess Story and its sequel are part of an extended canon diverged universe of Kingdom Hearts that I've made up that includes other stories in my works list, namely Tidus' Adventures in Traverse Town (indefinite hiatus, stagnated) and Altered Memories (complete!). As it is currently on hiatus, TATT can't be expected to have a huge impact on this story, but if you've read AM you'll definitely see its influence creeping in as early as chapter 4.**

 **Lastly, update schedules for me don't really exist. I have tried them and I am very, very, VERY bad at maintaining them, probably because my fandom interests are just all over the place. For this story, I will _attempt_ to maintain a regular fortnightly update but keep terribly in mind that this schedule may be a little volatile. **

**That all being said, I think it's time to finally begin this. The first 3 chapters are mostly going to be exposition rather than plot. Plot doesn't really start until chapter 4. So, for the next 2 weeks, enjoy this first chapter of exposition! :D**

* * *

 **Let Go**

A stark, white ruin was all that was left of a once grand castle on the slope of a frigid, black mountain. The throne room was a particular wreck, looking as though a grand battle had taken place inside it. A gargantuan armoured guardian lay motionless across the room and the floor was scattered with chunks of ice and broken spikes, many of which had melted partially in these warmer months. With the lady of the castle gone, the sun shone more freely on these frozen mountain ranges. The roof of the room had almost completely caved in, allowing the snow to blow in and settle thickly on everything. At the end of the room, perched on a high podium, was a mirror's frame. The inner edge was sharp and jagged and the shattered pieces lay where they fell, covered in snow.

Despite this destruction there were places that remained untouched. One such place was a secret crypt, deep beneath the castle. The crypt was old, older than most parts of the castle it belonged to. It was dark and dry and colder than the below freezing temperatures on the surface. The room was carved from the mountain stone and smoothed to a polished finish. The only light came from within the bust of an extravagant ice statue, sitting on a throne in a niche framed by columns and arches and carvings of snowdrops, snowflakes and feathers. The woman the statue portrayed looked to be some regal figure, dressed finely in the robes of a sorceress and the jewels of a queen. The walls and ceiling were cracked and from those cracks water was dripping, as it had been for several months.

Finally the last drop fell, completing the puddle that had formed in the curved saucer-like floor. The water rippled. It was calm at first, like a petal had fallen on its surface. Then it got more violent. The water rose in peaks and splashes and whispered a promise to the crypt:

" _I will destroy her! I will destroy her light! I will take away everything that she lays claim to, all that she knows, and everyone she loves! I will take it all away from her just as she took it all away from me! Just as it was all taken away from my mother…"_

The light of the statue's pendant grew, illuminating her smiling face.

Deep in the hearts of powerful sorceresses two women were placed upon a single podium atop an endless tower in a dark abyss. Giselle looked down at the stained glass floor below her, lit by a brilliant backlight of unknown origin or nature. She moved her legs aside, recognising her visage in the glass. At the edge of podium was a large, impressive throne of ice and seated on it was the woman of the ice statue. In the light her clothes were blue and white, her long cape almost indistinguishable from the icy chair that dwarfed her. Despite her height Giselle was merely a pale, skinny waif in comparison. The regal woman's nail polish glittered like diamonds, as did all of her make-up. Her white hair was pinned back neat and stately. Giselle rose to her feet, face petrified in awe.

"Mother…?"

The woman smirked. "Giselle, darling, what hath kept thee?"

"How is it that I'm able to see you again? Didn't you die?" the snow queen asked (although in light of the situation, perhaps she should be called the snow princess). She looked around. "Where are we?"

"We art whence we were when we perished. Thou art such a precious child of mine, thou hast kept me for a millennium, unfathomable how such youth and naivety belied such power."

"What do you mean?" the daughter said, taking a few steps forwards. "If you're truly alive then this is wonderful, isn't it? We can get out of here and finally stomp those ugly vermin."

"Only one may depart this place," the queen replied, standing up and folding her hands. "Doth thou recall witnessing my death? The mice declared victory and retreated with their army but overlooked one dram girl. I suppose thou art considered womanly but a fledgling I still deem thee. Without me, this feeble form thou art always constricted within. Yet when thou remoulded my remains back into glorious form my heart was frozen on the cusp of departure."

"I saved you?" Giselle whispered, a smile spreading on her face.

"It is true." Her mother nodded slowly. "Thou art blessed with talent but not understanding of the charm thou art capable of wielding. Alas, my heart drifts in purgatory and my soul hath already fractured; there is not enough left of me to survive. But with our energies and remains combined I can be reborn into the world anew. Sacrifice thyself, darling, so that I may rise and conquer the world."

Giselle's smile fell as her mother began to step away from her throne, ominously making her way towards her daughter. She stretched out her arms welcomingly but her face was cold with cruel satisfaction. Giselle began to step back.

"Mother, I can find a way for us both to leave here," she pleaded. " _We_ can find a way-"

"Thou disobey me?!" her mother shrieked. With a furious sweep of her arm and a stamp of her jewelled heel the ice throne disintegrated into snowflakes that whirled around the stage in a blizzard. The wind was chilly even to a being that was frozen down to the core, like Giselle. "I created thee!"

"To love me," Giselle said, staring at her mother imploringly. "You made me your daughter because you yourself could have none."

"I can fashion another child of magic when I am free. Do duty to thy parent and release thy heart to mine so that I may reawaken."

Giselle turned away and looked down. Her hands – perhaps the coldest in all of the worlds – that had never known coldness were shivering. With a burst of pain, something in her chest burned. It billowed up to her head like smoke and flowed down her arms to the tips of her fingers. Her heart trembled, sensitive to the heat and trying to claw it back.

"Is this all I am to you?" she asked, surprising even herself with her small, weak voice. She didn't feel weak and with each word her voice grew stronger to reflect her inner grit. "Is this all I have ever been to you? Is this all I have ever been to anyone?! To you I am a doll. To Zexion I am a pawn. To the Princess I am just an obstacle in the way of her path."

"They shall no longer matter."

"Oh, but they do," Giselle growled, twisting and scrunching her face in rage. "They will pay for using me! You will pay!"

"Insolent child!" her mother screamed.

She thrust out her hand and the snow twisted violently, suddenly convening on Giselle. The snow princess lifted her arms. The snow swirled around her like a tornado. She grunted with the effort of holding it at bay, feeling the push of her mother's magic acting upon it. She thrust with all of her magic and the snow blew away. The queen flinched, astonished by the strength of her daughter. This time with both hands she took control of the snow again and spun it into spears and needles of ice. She hurled them down at the thin woman. Giselle channelled her heat, braving the searing in her chest. She ripped the ice out of her mother's control and with her practiced dance steps she willed it to follow her as she turned tightly and then whipped back to the queen, spearing her.

Ice struck the queen in every part of her body. It knocked her back but kept her propped up and immobile. Giselle stepped towards her, stony-faced. Her mother flexed her hands, willing the magic to pump through her body again. With a swirl of Giselle's left foot, ice that had missed the mark remoulded as fluidly as wax and shot up to spear her right hand. The same happened to her left at the turn of Giselle's right foot. She continued her advance as her mother huffed, drawing pained breaths through her teeth. Even then she could not help how her head tilted instinctively and her eyeballs wavered in fear.

"I won't be led by the collar any longer," Giselle said, voice cool and even. She looked up. Above them two hearts circled each other. One of them sparked and forks of electricity flicked out to lick and caress the other, paralysing it and drawing it in. "Your heart will be the energy source to feed my transformation. The broken pieces of your soul will melt to fill the cracks of mine. Your corpse and mine will be merged and remodelled into a new body. It will be _me_."

Her mother screamed as her heart was engulfed by Giselle's. The new heart burned brighter and sparked ferociously. The snow queen's body burned away like paper as the abyss brightened but the snow princess didn't close her eyes against the light.

She blinked in the sudden darkness. She rubbed the armrests of the throne she sat upon – stone. Her ankles flexed, her feet were snug in jewelled slippers. With stiffened grace she rose to her feet and stepped out into the middle of the crypt. Her hands reached up to touch her face. It was all real. She was alive again. Giselle had regained her title as the queen of the ice and snow.

Lifting her arms up she drew the ice above down through the cracks and then shot it back, ripping the rock right out of the ground. The stale air of the crypt rose and the cool air descended like a breeze. Giselle summoned the snowflakes to weave into sparkling wings on her back and she flew up to the world above. She landed on the snowy floor of what was once her throne room. Her lip curled in disgust at the mess that had gone uncleaned for months.

She walked what was left of the promenade to her magic mirror. It stood in the same state that it had been left in when the castle was abandoned: an empty frame, holding onto some slivers of shards at the edges while the rest of the glass remained in thousands of pieces on the floor. She sighed. As powerful as she was with the ice, there was nothing she could do for her precious mirror. It was an heirloom of her mother's but her years of relying upon it had given her sentimentality towards it, no amount of betrayal from her mother could quash her fondness for it.

From up here on the podium, if she turned around there was enough of a gap in the wall where one of her guardians lay for her to see down the mountain. The little town of Disney continued its little life. She scowled. Down there was the tiny kingdom that once again she was unable to overcome.

" _I had a power that confined me to a mountain,"_ she sang quietly.  
" _In a castle just as lonely as it was cold.  
I had ambitions to be queen  
Of more than ice and snow and dreamed  
That I could one day take the whole world for my own."_

She turned back to her damaged mirror. She couldn't fix glass but the empty space behind its frame suddenly filled with reflective ice. Her reflection was new and yet the same; her body was thicker and fuller than before, not so waifish in its leanness.

" _It was the perfect winter for my plans to come to light,"_ she continued, unclipping the heavy cape and flinging it as far across the room as it would launch. Her voice climbed higher and higher and more raucous.

" _I had everything prepared; it looked to be going right  
But then it wasn't meant to be  
And in a ghastly tragedy  
I was robbed of what should rightfully be mine!"_

She turned around suddenly. With a sweep of both hands the ice and snow all over the floor slid to each side of the room and jumped up to form large, vicious snowmen.

" _The one thing that I simply cannot stand for  
Is a warmth and gentle light bright like the sun.  
So when that girl appeared  
With hair as red as her heart was fierce  
I knew that winning would mean bringing her undone."_

Giselle took graceful steps off her podium to walk amongst her minions. With a skip she pranced in an improvised formation, just like old times; her legs fluttered like hummingbird wings and she twirled like a petal on the breeze in her excitement.

" _I won't let go! I won't let go!  
The moment should be mine.  
I have earned it, haven't I?  
And I know who is to blame,  
I'll put out their burning flames…"_ she paused briefly at the head of her gate guardian, staring blankly at her with dead eyes. Her outstretched arm lifted and she closed her palm delicately.

"…' _Til they let go.  
Let go!"_

She did a dramatic pirouette to face her podium again. The heavy clothes barely lifted and twisted around her legs. That wouldn't do at all.

" _Getting rid of her was not a feat so easy to complete,  
Especially with the riff-raff always tailing at her feet.  
I regret to have ever thought  
That I could use her as a pawn  
But for each slight, revenge will be more sweet." _

She removed a brooch, looking at it coldly.

" _I can't rely on mummy dear to make it better,"_ she reminded herself, tossing the brooch aside and shrugging off the first cloak, stepping towards her old mirror as she did.

" _She's proven good as any enemy.  
I loved her from the start  
But she just tried to break my heart." _

When she was down to the light dress beneath she called upon her magic with a sweep of both arms. Tiny ice crystals fluttered around her like a shimmering mist. From the hem a glowing pattern appeared, embroidering itself up her outfit. The old threads were replaced with new, lighter, magical material.

" _Now I know I can trust none except for me._

" _I've let her go. Let her go."_

She tore her hair out of her mother's tight twisted bun, discarding the hairpin carelessly and letting it fall messily over her shoulders.

" _I don't need her anymore,  
I've proven all of that and more."_

She stepped onto the first step of the podium and the light blew away like powdery snow, leaving behind her new dress: a white gown with one long sleeve covering her right arm. The bodice fit tightly while the skirt flowed like a waterfall from her hips to her feet. A beautiful cape draped behind her, attached to her sleeved shoulder and anchored to her left wrist.

" _And with the power I've achieved  
I'll force the worlds onto their knees  
Until they bow  
To me!"_

At the top of the stairs she looked down at her mirror's shattered remains.

" _Not least of all, I won't forget that Princess and that boy  
And when they both least expect it I'll snare them in a ploy.  
If it's each other that they need  
That's okay, it's fine with me;  
They'll see my heart is not so easy to destroy." _

The snow on the podium began to swirl. The snowflakes twisted into menacing little faces like tiny demons. They picked up the glass shards and hauled them into the air, circling the Snow Queen in a sharp, terrifying whirlwind.

" _I've let it go. I'll let him go.  
If there's one thing more I will not bear  
It's fawning like the weak.  
I'll let it go… let him go.  
I'll renew my rule of ice and snow,  
A new life so to speak." _

She thrust her hand to the sky and the snow swirled up and up into the sky and beyond. The snowflake demons cackled as they exercised the new freedom they'd been given, scuttling away into the cosmos and over the world with wicked intention.

" _I'll forget the things I sought,  
Childish dreams that led to nought.  
Only one thing is worth coveting  
And romance is not that sort of thing.  
I'll crack their fragile hearts and then  
I'll freeze them through and shatter them!  
I'll let him go… to her he'll go."_

" _In the end I know,"_ Giselle smirked, watching her creation go with cruel satisfaction." _They'll let go!"_

She cackled evilly and summoned her wings of ice to her back again. It was time to leave. Each shard became a new eye in a new place and through them she would find her foes. They would not hide from her for long.

* * *

Above ground a great storm gathered. It was so sudden, dark and violent that it could only possibly have been caused by magic. The temperature snapped several degrees colder in an instant and in the nearby Disney Town people began to shiver. They hurried indoors as the wind gained speed and looked outside in bemused awe. Winter had been over for some time. The weather was meant to consist of blue skies and warm showers but all of a sudden fresh snow was falling from the sky and blowing through the streets.

The blizzard didn't go unnoticed at the castle. The windows rattled violently with the wind and the thunder. Queen Minnie found King Mickey observing it from a tall window. She took his hand in hers and they exchanged worried looks. Mickey returned to looking grimly at the blizzard. It was a bad sign. Sora and Riku had to make their decision soon.


	2. Song of Spring

**lol, look at that. My supposed update schedule has already imploded. I only nominated 2 weeks as a schedule because I will inevitably get to a point where I will struggle to have a chapter ready in a week but I figured it wasn't entirely fair to make you guys wait two weeks for something that was already ready. So I figure from now on if a chapter is ready I'll only give it a week to allow for editing.**

 **Also, it's the beginning of the story and this is still only chapter 2/3 of the exposition. Nothing that interesting has even happened yet.  
**

* * *

 **Song of Spring**

Zexion stumbled in the corridors of Castle Oblivion's dank basement. The final blow still smarted and his head spun with confusion. No one commanded the darkness the way Riku did, not even Xemnas to Zexion's knowledge. His mind boggled at the mere thought of someone like Riku even existing but he didn't have much time to think about it.

He smelled the visitors coming before he saw or even heard them – the smoky smell of something burning and a sharp, metallic smell like sterilised medical instruments. If Axel had been alone then Zexion may have dared to give him the benefit of the doubt but with an unknown acquaintance, Zexion simply could not trust him. He cursed internally. The battle with Riku had left him weak. He was drained of magic as it was but perhaps he still had one last hurrah left in him. He threw a projection out ahead of him, offset only a small distance from his true location but far enough that nobody would be able to feel his presence beside it. Then he slipped under a cloak of invisibility, swallowing thickly. He was ready to put on a performance for whatever was about to transpire.

The first thing he saw was Riku, followed very closely by Axel. Zexion was no fool; he knew that it wouldn't be the real Riku. That battle had left him beaten but he'd at least gleaned some very valuable insight to the boy's character. Despite his previous fears he had grown some kind of nobility complex. He wasn't the sort to chase down an injured foe out of mere vindictiveness. He breathed the darkness like oxygen and controlled it like his own limbs but it was the _way_ he did it. It was so characteristic of a Warrior of Light. That's what left Zexion so puzzled.

Axel, however, was a much more dubious character. A flurry of dancing flames that weaved in, out and around its victims like a capricious whirlwind. Yet they were allies until proven otherwise, so Zexion tried his very best to act like it. His clone donned the face of fear as Zexion remembered it.

"Oh… oh yes, of course…" he muttered, giving Axel a look that was simpering and relieved. It had been a long time since he'd used actions like this so he hoped he wasn't doing it wrong. Even if he was, he doubted that Axel would pick it up; he'd been a Nobody for a very long time too, after all. "The replica. We can use this Riku to defeat the real one. Axel…"

Axel blinked. It was enough for Zexion to know that Axel had at least heard his pleading but he wasn't doing his usual show of false emotion and genuine sass. "Wouldn't you like to be real?"

Not addressed to him, Zexion could tell. It turned out that he was correct to be distrustful of his colleague. The doll nodded and Axel continued, promising rubbish and lies. A pedantic part of Zexion wanted to speak out and explain in fastidious detail all of the holes in his unscientific, baseless blathering but when one was weak and resorting to hiding it was best to play dumb. He could see quite easily what game Axel was playing. How were people supposed to act in this situation again? Oh, right… betrayed.

"You can't do this!"

The replica grabbed him by the collar. Even without a heart, betrayal still tasted like poison. It started at the tip of his tongue and slowly crept to the back of his throat, filling his mouth with a bitter flavour. Zexion made a face at the bad taste, hidden by his invisibility cloak while his doll played victim for him, crying out in pain and terror. At this moment it suddenly occurred to him that maybe this was too much acting. He wasn't known for being emotional so would an expression like that make Axel suspicious?

However, the eighth member seemed to revel in it rather than treat it as dubious. Zexion wondered if Axel merely saw this as the beginning roots of a heart in poor, little Number VI. That the misguided baby bookworm had no idea that ever since the loss of his original heart he'd been gradually growing a new one, at least not until he was finally able to use it to _feel_ and the only thing he felt was fear. It sounded like the kind of rubbish Axel was likely to believe, Zexion thought condescendingly.

"So sorry, Zexion…" Axel chuckled. "You just found out way too much."

Zexion pursed his lips and glared at Number VIII but Axel didn't return the gaze, too focused on where the action was. The schemer wished he could hate Axel with every fibre of his being but he just couldn't feel it.

He allowed the Riku Replica to absorb the dark magic imbued to make the physical structure of that projection but Axel wasn't any the wiser. Or if he was, he gave no indication. The sucking of power from the projection could be felt right in his core and if he didn't let the image go eventually the replica would suck all of the real power out of him. Yet if he let go too fast the image would freeze up, stop reacting, and perhaps even lose its shape. So Zexion had to time it very carefully, even though it was physically painful. He never imagined Vexen's doll could wield such power.

The image slumped like a corpse and Zexion silently sighed. He cut the power from his core and the image amalgamated into Riku Replica's body. Zexion had never felt so drained, even when he was Ienzo. His head was dizzy with fatigue and his chest and throat were almost closed up. Something slimy dribbled onto his upper lip but he couldn't stop exerting his power yet. Not until Axel was well and truly gone.

His head pounded with the effort of keeping up invisibility but he wouldn't let the cloak fall until the smoky scent of Axel left his nostrils. When it did the illusion was down in less than a second and Zexion collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. He was ready to do that before Axel had shown up with the doll but now his body felt like lead, whereas before it had just felt sore. He reached up to touch the slimy trail of bodily fluid streaming from his nostrils. His image had been afraid but he didn't think he had been. Yet there was this mucus from his nose, the product of the flushing of excess tears to the nasal cavity. Had he been crying? Had he… had he _felt_ and not realised it?

He looked down at his finger. It was hard to see between the black glove and the dim light but after squinting at it for some time he realised that it was not snot he had wiped from his lip. It was blood.

He sighed and let his head and arm drop to the floor heavily. If his body was failing then so be it. He fought tooth and nail to stay alive but he didn't really care about death. He had just wanted to continue the experiment.

* * *

Waking up from a dream like that had no more feeling than the methodical falling of the curtain at the end of a performance. Zexion sat up. His bed creaked and wobbled as the rusting frame strained to hold his weight and the underwire sagged. The little tower room of old and broken furniture as rickety as the dark tower itself had a sweet-smelling breeze wafting in from the broken window. Zexion slid out of bed and walked over to it, pushing it open further.

The morning breeze was cool and the sun was warm. It ruffled his bangs as it eddied around the castle towers and sailed on over the canyon towards the town in the still empty lakebed. Cranes and grappling claws and other types of heavy machinery still poked out above the rooftops but the buildings no longer looked so skeletal from afar. In the golden rays of the new sun there were bits of colour throughout the town like spattering and splattering from an artist's brush. The sunlight kissed away the last of the frost on the edges of the window panes, bringing to Zexion's mind and old children's song:

" _Winter's gone and spring is springing  
Shines the sun with warmth of old.  
Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Chapel bells are ringing!  
We're done with being cold.  
Flowers a-bloom with odours pleasant,  
All of Radiant Garden is glad!  
Mother Earth, we thank you for the presents.  
Spring's gay and winter's sad._

 _Winter's gone and spring is springing,  
Shines the sun with warmth of old.  
Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Chapel bells are ringing!  
We're done with being cold._

 _We're done with being cold._

 _We're done with being cold…_

 _We're… done… with… being… cold…"_

* * *

 **A/N: So this is a really important piece of exposition that I had initially promised back in Princess Story and then removed from Princess Story before I published the chapter because of story flow reasons.** I initially planned to have Zexion explain this in chapter 50 but the scene was too high strung and having an exposition monologue suddenly appear in the middle of it didn't make sense so I deleted it and rewrote it for this story as Zexion's dream sequence (and a chance to throw some shade on Dream Drop Distance... also on shitty logic generally because anyone as smart as Zexion/Ienzo was alleged to be and who had known Axel for as long as he apparently did should have definitely realised that Axel is shady af).

 **Glossary:**

 **"Spring Pagent":** I straight up appropriated this song from the Frozen soundtrack because I liked these verses so much but they cut it out of the story! Why, though? It's so cute! Very well, Disney. You have squandered your chance. I will take this song and turn it into the adorable anthem of the children of Radiant Garden.


	3. The Other Dream

**The Other Dream**

Kairi floated almost weightlessly through a dark ocean, spiralling down through the cool depths amidst a flurry of bubbles and foam. As she fell the light from the surface got dimmer and the pressure tightened. She opened her eyes, seeing nothing but a pale light shining down like a spotlight. There was nothing else around her but when she flipped over to what she thought was the right way up her feet touched solid ground. She held her arms out, confused by the nothingness around her and took a step. A sudden light flashed from below and she threw up her arms to cover her eyes as a whirlwind of feathers brushed past her. When she looked up a flock of white doves were flying away into the dark, leaving her standing on the new light that had been revealed below.

Light blue stained glass topped the pillar under her feet and when she looked down the first thing that popped out to her was Sora's face. His eyes were closed in a gentle yet troubled expression while he lay unguarded and unarmed. She paced around the mural, looking down in wonder at the familiar images and portraits of four of his closest friends.

" _You have travelled so far yet gone nowhere_ ," a voice whispered to her from the void. Kairi jumped and looked up from the mural. _"But of all of them you have the power to travel the farthest."_

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked, looking around rapidly for a source of the voice. "Can you come out where I can see you?"

Instead of a response, three orbs of light materialised out of the darkness and circled around her – red, yellow and blue. She reached out to grab the yellow one as it circled past but it bobbed out of the way. All of them did that, no matter how hard she tried to catch one.

" _You are the last to make the choice and also the first."_

Kairi finally caught the blue orb between both hands and it nearly blinded her with a bright flash. She cracked an eye open to see if the coast was clear but opened both in curiosity upon seeing the staff that had appeared in her hands. The rod was short and straight, topped with a blue club that was similar in shape to King Mickey's emblem. Was this a weapon?

Suddenly black spots appeared all over Sora's mural. Kairi gasped as little black globs rose out of them and took shape as bug-like creatures with beady yellow eyes. Kairi dropped the staff and held her arm out to summon the Keyblade but nothing came. She stared at her hand in shock. Why wouldn't it appear?

The Shadows sank into the tiles and swam towards her. She picked up the staff and when the first one popped out in front of her she whacked it. It went flying over the head of the one behind it. One nearly jumped on her from behind but she rammed it in the belly and clubbed another beside it. Despite taking hits they just came back, barely fazed. No matter where she turned there was no space for her to back away—she was surrounded.

"Get back!" she screamed, holding her staff up high. Columns of light shot up from underneath each of the Shadows, burning through their black bodies until they were nothing but smoke. She sighed in relief.

It was short lived. A larger black spot appeared right under her feet, trapping her instantly like quicksand. The darkness leaked over the stained glass and crept up her legs as she sank. She couldn't pull her legs out and with nothing to grab onto the darkness gradually engulfed her and dragged her under.

She gasped for air like she'd almost drowned and the light abruptly returned, this time with a darker tone. The dark violet glass below her had Riku's figure crouched with his Keyblade in hand against the background of a moonlit beach. In the five panels above his head she recognised her face and Sora's, as well as King Mickey and a mysterious hooded figure. Oddly, the central panel remained blank but if she looked closely Kairi thought she could see a vaguely human silhouette in the glass. Riku's eyes were also closed but his face was at peace, chin upturned in determination.

" _All of the pieces lie where they fell yet they are incomplete."_

The blank portrait lit up like a spotlight. She jumped away from it in surprise. In the tower of light a yellow-hilted sword and a red shield appeared. Kairi waited for any further prompting but the voice had vanished, leaving her to ponder this on her own. She appraised the two items carefully and figured that she already had one weapon that she could hit with. A solid defence would probably add to her arsenal nicely. She slipped her left arm into the straps and the spotlight disappeared with a flash, taking the sword with it. Then without warning, three white portals opened around the edges of the mural and tall, white monsters dropped out.

"Nobodies!?" Kairi squeaked, lifting up the shield immediately, surprised by how heavy it was.

The Dusks slid towards her with swaying hips. One of them jumped at her. She lifted the shield with all of her might and felt as much as she heard it crash into the armour. But another one slammed into her from behind, knocking her over. She struggled to turn over dragging the shield and regretting her decision to pick it up. The third flipped over her weightlessly and its bladed hands slashed as it walked through the air. She lifted herself to her knees and held the shield up, using both arms to support it. The blades scraped across the metal and with a cry she leapt to her feet, thrusting the shield upwards and knocking the Dusk out of the air. She let the shield drop, already tired out by the effort of simply lifting it and the other two Nobodies stalked towards her.

She pointed the staff at them and fired two shots of magic, nailing each of them in the face. The third one fluttered to the floor gracefully as the two recovered and they wriggled across the floor, mush faster than before. She held out the staff, pushing magic through it and hoping for something. Power sparked out of the top and a bolt shot out, zapping the closest foe but didn't stop there. It jumped to the next Dusk and the one after that and once the chain was completed it exploded into a dangerous shower of sparks and lightning. Kairi crouched behind the shield to protect herself from the flying magic until there was a bright flash and suddenly all three Nobodies were gone.

"Gee, that was close," she muttered, standing up awkwardly with the shield. "What's going on in here? Hey! Mysterious voice! Where am I? What is all of this?"

" _Fools will play the game before the puzzle is complete. It is time to set the final stage."_

The staff and the shield suddenly disappeared, leaving Kairi in a panic. She looked to her right hand but the Keyblade still wouldn't come to her. A cold wind blew through her, making her shiver and turn to it as it left. A ghost walked out ahead of her; a blonde girl with pale skin and a white dress. She crossed the mural purposefully without once looking back, even when Kairi called out to her.

"Look out!" Kairi exclaimed, running to catch up. "You're about to walk off the edge!"

The ghost took a step into the darkness and a violet tile appeared under her foot. With every step she took another tile appeared, gradually lightening in colour and leading up to another pillar that was appearing out of the darkness. The mural was too high up to see but the tall gothic windows glowed promisingly.

Kairi glanced at the new path nervously and put one foot on the first step to test it. It was solid. She put all of her weight on it and it stayed so she began to follow the path the ghost was making to the next station. About halfway there she looked behind her. Riku's mural was crumbling – the tower below it had disappeared and the panels were falling away into the dark piece by piece. The steps that she had taken were also tumbling into the dark one by one. She ran the rest of the way up the path, looking back every now and then. The steps disappeared faster and faster to keep up with her. Spurred by the fear, she turned forward and pumped her legs as hard as she could.

The ghost had already made it to the next station but by the time Kairi got there she had disappeared. She hopped onto the next platform and dropped to her knees, huffing exhaustedly. Behind her the tiles all fell away until she was stranded on this new pink mural. Unlike the beach scenes before the background featured a castle surrounded by flowers in a valley with waterfalls cascading _upwards_ on either side of it and standing in the middle of it was _her_. Kairi gaped at the full-body portrait of herself, holding a wayfinder in front of her between both hands. Her image was flanked by circular portraits of Sora and Riku but also of Monica and Max and a fifth portrait of the back of someone's head. Kairi crouched by that portrait and ran her hand over it. Somehow she could tell that that was supposed to be a woman but had no idea how she knew her.

" _All of the doors are locked and the hearts are closed. For those who carry the Keys the way will never be lost but it must be reset."_

The pillar rumbled and Kairi almost toppled over. She balanced herself on her hands and as she tried to get back to her feet she looked down. Her own face stared back at her with eyes halfway to opening.

" _The light must be reborn."_

The pillar tipped dramatically and tossed her into the abyss but she wasn't alone in the dark. Six other pillars with stained glass murals floated haphazardly in the void with her, bearing the images of six other girls. Kairi glanced at all of them as she fell past, getting a long enough glimpse for familiarity but not recognition. And then she was falling away into the darkness.

* * *

 **A/N: chapter kinda short, but I have a special note: the next chapter probably will be 2 weeks away this time as I picked up, like, 10 extra shifts at work (thereabouts) so I will be too busy to even do editing.**


	4. A Quaint Little Life

**A Quaint Little Life**

 _Rrriiiinng!_

A pale hand reached for the alarm clock on the windowsill. Her fingers grasped air for a few moments and then reached further, snatching the clock and flicking the switch that stopped the ringing. A mound formed in the bed sheets as Kairi slowly rose. The sheets slid off blood red locks of tousled hair onto her slim shoulders and blue eyes lifted to gaze out the window sleepily. The strange dream lingered in her mind like a recent memory. Heartless and Nobodies, murals of her friends and a voice that was mysterious yet comforting. The words it had spoken burned into her mind and she repeated them to herself so as to not forget. They had sounded very important, after all.

Putting the dream aside for a moment, she looked up at the sky. The clouds from the previous night's downpour had dissipated into thin, white patches in an otherwise beautiful sky. Kairi smiled.

"Good morning, world," she said, putting her clock back and opening the window to lean out into the humid morning. The air smelled like fresh rain and sea salt. "It looks like a beautiful day."

She looked down at her clock and grinned. Throwing her sheets back, she kicked her legs out of bed to make it to the bathroom before her father. As she did, she danced to a tune in her own head, one that was sure to be stuck there all day.

* * *

The leaves were still dripping and the road was covered in puddles that had gone still enough to become mirrors. They barely even rippled as she passed them on her way to school. It was a lonely walk from the mayor's house. There was no one else along this road to join her on her way to school so the only things to keep her company were the weather and the view.

The entire village was visible from her house and the road going down the mountainside. The houses were laid out before her eyes like a map where she could point to every street, shop and building. She looked back to her house briefly. The mayor sat on the edge of the deck with a mug in his hands and silver hair glinting in the sun like a lighthouse beacon. He watched her go with paternal care and something else that Kairi couldn't quite place. It had been creeping into his expression slowly over the past few weeks after her return from Disney Castle. If she were to take a guess, she would say that it was a form of quiet resignation, as if he was slowly losing something very important but had opted to accept it rather than fight. Every time she came home he would fleetingly look surprised as though he hadn't expected her to return, even from a mundane outing such as going to school. She couldn't work it out so she turned back to the village and the sea, looking over the entire world.

A world that wasn't entirely hers.

Yet it was the only home she could remember. It was quaint and routinely: she did her share of chores at home, usually before school, spent the day at school and the afternoons with friends before returning home to spend her evenings with her adoptive father. Despite this, at some point she'd had another life somewhere else. The fortnight she spent in Disney Town had revealed enough to her.

It had actually been quite a thrilling adventure. Kairi stared out of the classroom window reminiscing about all that had happened. She'd met all of the castle residents and become familiar with King Mickey and Queen Minnie, as well as Donald and Goofy. She'd made especially good friends with Monica and Max. With them alongside her they undertook a remarkable feat of defeating and purifying some seriously powerful Unversed – enemies that she swore she had never seen but yet somehow thought that she had. Then of course, there was also the snow witch, the one who fancied herself a queen of snow and an empress of sorts. Everything about her was cold and cutting, even the false heart she forged for the creation of an emperor to rule beside her. However, that man had to be a Nobody first.

What a Nobody he turned out to be. Kairi had never thought that she could learn to trust one of those creatures but there was one that she felt she could. Zexion – who'd introduced himself cryptically as Z – was apathetic to a fault and yet his soul had managed to save some half-hidden passions from his Somebody. They'd known each other in the past, Kairi was sure of it (known _of_ each other was how Zexion put it) but she'd totally forgotten her past. Until recently she had never had a burning desire to know about it. She'd been happy on the Islands and thought that perhaps just a little longer would be fine but the longer she left it the bigger her questions and curiosities grew. Kairi and Zexion shared a past together somewhere and now, more than ever, she needed to know where.

She drifted off into a daydream-like state. The ringing of the school bell was just a faraway, muted sound in the background. A poke in the cheek with a pencil eraser started her out of her thoughts. She looked up, wondering which one of her classmates had decided to bother her and wasn't surprised to find that it was Selphie. She wasn't technically Kairi's classmate, being in a lower grade, though they had been friends almost all the time that the redhead had spent living on the island. Not good friends but friends nonetheless.

"Hey, Kairi," Selphie said, grinning sunnily. "Do you want to go and hang out at the stadium? The boys are practicing for the Blitzball game tomorrow."

Tidus and Wakka's made-up game had somehow taken off into an actual sport and Selphie had taken a huge interest in observing them. Not because she understood how the game was played – she had absolutely no idea what the rules were – but it was customary in swimming sports for players to be partially undressed and the evidence of their training was quite a sight to behold for a teenage girl discovering that there could be more intimate aspects to romance.

"Thanks for offering but no thanks," Kairi replied, packing up her books and pencils. "I promised Sora and Riku that I'd go to the island with them this afternoon."

Selphie stuck her tongue out. "The island? Aren't we getting a bit old for all of that kiddie stuff?"

Kairi just giggled and winked. "A promise is a promise. Maybe I'll take you up on that offer some other time."

Selphie pouted but had no choice but accept as Kairi was already leaving. They walked together for as long as they could before they finally split off. Selphie took the turn to the stadium and Kairi continued to her house to change into a pair of black shorts and a small white dress with short, puffed sleeves (since it was still very hot). Once she was more casually dressed she made the long journey back down to the beach, bubbling with excitement. Sora had said that he had something important to tell them and she had a feeling that she knew exactly what that was.

They boys hadn't even left by the time she made it to the beach. They were still on the pier, untying their ropes when Kairi called out to them. She waved to them as they looked up and ran the rest of the way to greet them.

"Hi Kairi," Sora said with a grin once she'd made it to them. Riku nodded in greeting and also smiled. His shorter hairstyle didn't give him a less brooding appearance, funnily enough.

"Hey! What's the big news?" Kairi asked excitedly. Her gaze fell to the boat and her heart sank with sudden apprehension when she saw the two packs that were already piled inside but she tried to keep her facial expression upbeat. "Are we going camping?"

Riku glanced at Sora awkwardly but the brunet gave her an oblivious grin. "Yeah, kinda," he answered, reaching into the boat to pick up something that was half buried under the bags. He lifted the bottle and the rolled up note inside for Kairi to see. "The King sent us another note! He's coming to the island to take us to Yen Sid's Tower so that we can take the Mark of Mastery exam."

"That's important, right?" Kairi said, not quite sure what the 'Mark of Mastery' was.

"If we pass it then that'll make us official masters of the Keyblade."

Kairi's eyes lit up. "Sounds great! Just wait up, I'll go and get my things too."

"Uh, Kairi…" Riku interrupted tentatively before she could turn around and start running home. "You should probably stay here. There's more to this than just an exam and while the letter was vague on the details, I'm pretty sure it'll be dangerous."

"Like I don't know anything about 'dangerous'," Kairi scoffed, glaring at him with her arms akimbo. "Are you saying that I'm too weak to even try? I thought we were going to do things together from now on!"

"We just don't want to worry about you," Sora replied apologetically. Even he couldn't keep up his sunny smile when Kairi was so crestfallen.

Her throat felt tight upon hearing that but she tried to keep a straight face. "Right… I see how it is. I suppose I'll just get in the way, won't I?"

She turned on her heel and marched back down the pier, ignoring Sora's pleas for her to wait. Despite shorter legs, her long and purposeful stride was difficult for him to keep up with and he almost tripped over his own huge feet trying to stay beside her. She refused to look at him, keeping her eyes staring straight ahead unless she was turning her gaze to keep him out of her periphery. It lasted until they came up on the dunes and Sora had had enough, taking her by the wrist and forcing her to stop.

"What?!" she snapped, turning to face him huffily. "You've already made it clear that you two don't need me in your world-saving adventures."

Sora cringed. "We didn't mean it like that, really. We just want you to be safe… _I_ just want you to be safe."

"Staying on the Islands doesn't make me safe," Kairi reminded him in a low voice, almost a whisper.

"Uh, yeah, I guess that's true," Sora conceded, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "So then, in that case, I'll give you this."

He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out something that was hung on a long chain, turning her wrist over and pressing it into her hand. When he removed his hand Kairi lifted it to get a good look. Five shells were clumsily stitched together, three of them were blue indicating the start of a uniform colour but the others were pink and green respectively. Drawn onto the pink shell was a wonky impression of what Kairi thought was supposed to be her face.

"You made me a wayfinder…" she muttered, looking at Sora in bewilderment. He blushed.

"I was going to give it to you earlier until I realised it's nowhere near as good as yours but I thought I should return the favour. This way, we can both find our way home if we ever get lost."

He smiled at her hopefully. No matter how hard she tried to muster it, the steaming anger from earlier ebbed away until she was just staring at her gift with a whimsical quirk of her lips. She cast that gentle look at Sora.

"Right. Well then, don't get lost, okay?"

Sora grinned. "I'll do my best!"

"Do your best in that exam you were talking about," Kairi joked, shoving him in the shoulder playfully. "With all you've been through, earning your 'official mastery' will be a cinch for both of you, surely."

"Yeah!" Sora laughed, pumping his fist in the air. "I'll ace this test! And I'll make sure I let you know all about it when it's over."

"Get going, then," Kairi said, turning him around and pushing him back in the direction of the pier. "Go be a Keyblade Master."

Sora gave her a mock salute and ran back down the beach. Kairi turned back to the island and looked at the wayfinder Sora had put in her hands. She whispered to herself: "And I'll go figure out what I'm supposed to do."

* * *

The twilight turned to dusk over the Destiny Islands. Sora and Riku were gone – Kairi had watched from her bedroom window as the Gummi Ship shot off into the sky like a flaming comet, graceful as it zoomed away into nothing. She wondered if anybody else on the island had seen it go and if they'd realised what it was. Stars twinkled in the falling darkness and the dying embers of the sunset's fiery glow were just a thin strip on the horizon as Kairi dangled the wayfinder in front of her. It swayed and twisted languidly while behind it the town below was lit like every house held a little candle inside. She put the wayfinder down on the sill and gazed at the town sadly, singing to herself a sombre version of the melody she'd had in her head all day:

" _Then when the sun goes down  
The lights go up in town.  
The stars come out like every night  
But look so different now." _

The full blanket of stars had been laid out by now, not a speck of sun left on the horizon.

" _And as the sun sets on the sea  
It takes me to a familiar scene.  
Wondering about this life I lead,  
Is it the only life I've ever seen?" _

She turned away from her window and shuffled to sit on the edge of her bed, surveying the bedroom before her. It was nothing like the grandeur offered at Disney Castle but it had been home. Flower-shaped lamps hung off her ceiling fan and all of the furniture retained their wooden colours and textures. It was all organised by her hand. This was her life.

" _I'd been wondering with hope;  
Is this quaint little life all I know?" _

Kairi flung herself off the mattress, staying on the balls of her feet as she moved them. She concentrated on the turns, the unnecessary leap before she twirled around to pull the chain on her lights. The flowers burst into bright light, throwing it over everything in the room and banishing the shadows to the smallest corners. At the other side of her room she paused, right in front of her door. Her arms were raised, poised and disciplined like they were waiting. She didn't technically know what she was doing when she danced like Monnie but her body had gradually learned to execute similarly delicate moves. It was stronger and more controlled than before and yet the two people who should have realised what she needed this for didn't think she was ready.

" _I've got the marks of an ordinary girl  
Making it in an ordinary world."_

The coat hooks on the back of her door held a miscellaneous variety of her belongings including a handbag, a skipping rope, and the scarf she'd worn around Disney Town. Lying over the top of them was a bright red fighting stick that Tidus had agreed to give her since he didn't use it anymore. She flicked it into the air with the back of her fingers and caught it with her right hand.

" _That's the way it's always been but lately  
My extraordinary tale wants to unfurl."_

She swung the stick around, guiding the edge in clean swipes that narrowly missed hitting anything in her room. She smiled. It had been her intention. Then her body moved along with the stick in fluid motions. She imagined the Shadows caught in the range and dissipating into smoke.

" _There's more to me than I was ever told.  
Before it hits me I think I should know  
If I can fly to places I thought I'd never go  
Is there a part of me that's more than what's on show?"_

She turned back to the window, leaning over her bed to get a good look at the stars.

" _Sailing, playing, dancing, drawing  
Fills this quaint little life I have."_

She picked up the wayfinder and held it by the chain. Sora had even put a clip on the end of it like one of his keychains. Kairi placed it against the end of the fighting stick's shaft, pretending it was a Keyblade.

" _But for once I've been thinking that  
This life isn't all that I've had."_

All of a sudden there was a flash and the Keyblade appeared in her hand, knocking the fighting stick across the room where it hit the wall with a _clatter_. Kairi gasped and almost tumbled backwards. It had taken a different form to what it usually did for her. Gone were the petals and leaves of Destiny's Embrace, replaced with delicate curves and small points like shells. The teeth of the key had become star-shaped and both sides of the knuckle bow were covered by wings with blue and gold feathers. Kairi looked the new weapon up and down, eyes widening in amazement to see that Sora's wayfinder had attached to the key ring.

The Keyblade tugged with a gentle pull that barely fazed her but she obliged it anyway, turning her wrist until it stopped insisting. It pointed out her window. She walked up to it, crawling over her bed until she was leaning out of the window. There was nothing unusual down in the town. All of the light of the sun had gone, leaving only the stars and the dark. Across the water the Keyblade pointed but all that could be seen was a dark mass. Yet it was a direction that Kairi was intimately familiar with: the play island, with the door to the world's heart.

Kairi snorted. Then she laughed giddily, unable to contain her mirth over the irony. The boys thought that she wasn't strong enough to stay safe. The Keyblade's sentiment thrummed through her heart strong enough that she could translate it into words. _"We must go,"_ it told her.

"Yeah," she said aloud, even though there was no need to when the Keyblade was concerned. "Whatever Sora and Riku are getting ready for, you can sense that it's going to be important, can't you? And I need to be as ready as I can be too."

"Kairi!" her father's voice called from downstairs. "Time for dinner!"

Her stomach dropped. Before she left, she would have to settle things here first.

"Okay, I'm coming!" she called back, dismissing the Keyblade. She left the wayfinder on her pillow and then went down for dinner, already starting to formulate ways to tell her father about the possibly dangerous journey she was planning to leave for.

* * *

 **A/N: I survived 2 weeks of hell at work. Now I have time to do stuff like upload this!**

Kairi's new Keyblade... it's not Oathkeeper, but I imagine it looking similar. I still have not come up with a name for it, so, Peanut Gallery, throw me some suggestions! And I will offically dub it an appropriate title at some time henceforth.


	5. The Worlds

**The Worlds**

The texture of the sand in the play island's secret place had changed ever since Kairi, Sora, and Riku had started to use it as an ice rink. It rubbed her fingers abrasively like millions of tiny shards of glass, all too small to make a cut but still deadly in their intention. She carded her fingers and toes through it, leaning against the wall beside the portraits.

Sora and Riku had well and truly gone on their way. Nobody had heard anything from them in three days now. Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka had already started to ask questions about their sudden disappearance and yet for some reason their families were quiet about it. Kairi had gone to Sora's house once to check on them and Sora's mother had been gazing out of the window in front of her sewing table with her chin in one hand, thoughtfully staring at the sky. One day as she was going home from school Kairi spotted Riku's mother on her way home from work doing the same thing. She had stopped at a corner and was staring straight up at a sky full of patchy clouds. Even Sora's sister was unworried by his absence and she normally held her family so close.

And now she had to go too. She stood up, picking up the canvas bag that she'd packed with whatever she thought she would need initially. In the end she couldn't face her father with her decision and could only hope that he would accept her coward's way out of explaining it to him. He'd surely already found the letter she'd left on the table for him, rolled up inside a bottle with an orchid. Maybe he would just accept it—she could imagine that resigned expression on his face as he read it but even if he wanted to come after her it was too late to stop her. She patted her pink jacket pocket where she'd put the wayfinder, chained to one of the jacket's belt clasps for safekeeping. Then she turned to the door.

Suddenly her feet and hands felt cold. She gulped, taking a step hesitantly. After all, she had never been on this type of adventure before and perhaps this was going a little too far over her head. Pulling her courage up, she strode to the door and pushed it open.

The door swung open slowly and a cold wind blew out, bringing with it little wisps of smoky darkness. It blew through her, touching her soul and her heart and making her shiver right down to her core. The tunnel was there again but less defined than it was before. It was taking the shape of a cave but the walls moved like they were alive and breathing, rotating and undulating. And at the end, nothing but a void.

Kairi's blood ran cold as she took tiny steps to toe the doorway and peer in. She took a step inside. The walls shifted. She took a few more steps, nervously looking back at the door to see if it was closing on her. Suddenly the walls bulged. She squeaked and hugged herself tightly. The bulbous extensions closed her in, tightening the space around her. It was so dark and cold in here. She hadn't had a proper look at it before but she could see it now. Darkness. That was how she got to Disney Town before—through the darkness.

Then again, she digressed that the darkness had always been what had taken her places before. The darkness itself wasn't scary. She reminded herself: she is a Princess of Heart. She had all of the light she would ever need and the darkness would never hurt her so long as she controlled the power she had.

A bright light began to glow from inside her and the walls moved away, disappearing altogether until there was nothing but plain void around her with no sense of direction. Remarkably then, even the darkness began to peel away from under her feet like a mat of petals being blown away in the wind. In its wake at first was nothing but light and she had to squeeze her eyes shut against it until she sensed through her eyelids that the glare had subsided. Then she opened her eyes.

She gasped. The void had opened up to her to become more like a sea. Light and stars twinkled throughout this aquamarine space where the sea had merged into the sky. When she looked up it just continued up, up and away to a mysterious benevolent light source while down below there was a thicker substance like water where her feet made ripples even though she was standing several metres above it. And floating in the light-filled void before her – shifting and moving seemingly on whimsy – were the worlds.

Kairi stumbled back so quickly that she tripped on the sand piled up at the doorway and fell into the secret cave gracelessly. She scrambled to her feet but the door didn't slam in her face like she was anticipating it to. It sat open invitingly, allowing her to continue to observe the ocean beyond.

"Th… those are the worlds?" she whispered to herself in disbelief. "There are so many…"

She got closer and put her hands on the doorway, leaning in.

" _Look at the worlds,  
So close and I'm halfway to them,"_ she sang to herself. With them all in front of her like this it somehow wasn't so frightening.

" _Look at them all,  
So vast and I'm halfway there.  
And here I am  
At last, I just have to do it…"_

She backed up, rubbing her hands together and licking her lips. "Okay, here I go!"

She took a running start and leaped into the void. To her surprise there was no longer a floor to land on and instead she fell. Stars and streamers of light rushed past as the void changed around her, twisting into a tunnel and the worlds whirled around it. She laughed in delight at the warm feeling of the wind rushing not just through her this time but also around her, fluttering her clothes and blowing through her hair.

Below her a light shone bright as a portal opened up and she turned around to it. She barely registered what she saw, only briefly acknowledged that it was familiar and that was enough to make her reach for it. The image faded to light as the portal drew her in.

She stumbled out onto the ground. Before her was a gap in the wall overlooking a valley and at the end of that valley, in the near distance, was a town. She walked out as close as she could to the edge of the floor that had no barrier, squinting to try to make out details from such a distance. A fresh spring breeze blew against her face and she sighed contentedly.

"That looks like… no way," she murmured, eyes brightening.

Hollow Bastian – no, _Radiant Garden_ , she had to remember now – sat at the end of the valley like a half-built diorama. Gone was impressive but charmless fortress of darkness that Maleficent used to rule. Now it was beginning to resemble a normal town. Her heart settled with a satisfied gladness, a feeling she didn't understand but was now hopeful that she was going to.

Before she could get too comfortable a sinking feeling had her on alert. If Radiant Garden was over there, where was here? Her ears tuned in to the sounds that had been overshadowed by the sight: a hollow, moaning wind and the bubbling of running water. She turned around. The room behind her was dark and she could only barely see inside. A narrow hallway ran away from her on both sides with the alcove cut out of the wall. Most of the space there was taken up by what at first appeared to be a table with a dimly glowing surface but as she got closer the purple glow was clearly coming from inside it. She was able to reach over and put her hand into it, waving it around and pushing up some thick, purplish fog that was lingering at the bottom—the dying dregs of magic in an abandoned cauldron.

Looking back out to the valley, the frame of her view was clearer here. Giant, bronze gears and chrome-coloured pipes wound in and out of the walls and beyond the drop was the bottom half of a shape that caused Kairi's eyes to widen in fear. She remembered where she'd seen that shape before. In fact, she remembered where she'd seen something similar to this before. This is what Maleficent had once made Radiant Garden look like. But Radiant Garden was on the other side of the valley. Why was all of this still here?

She looked up and down the hallway. On both sides it curved around the walls and out of view. Taking a gulp and steeling her courage, she randomly decided on a direction and began to walk.

* * *

Kairi's footsteps in the Realm of Light echoed those of a woman walking in the Realm of Darkness. She paused in her journey and looked down at her clothes. They were falling to pieces on her, despite how time had left her body. While staying young indefinitely may have its appeal it actually frustrated her. Her injuries would not heal without magic, her wounds would not scar, her hands and feet grew no callouses for her effort – for all of the fighting and training she had done her body behaved as if it had achieved nothing. Even if she found the way back out she wouldn't be able to leave this place without her time.

She looked up at the enormous moon above her, larger than any she had ever seen before it. It looked down at the world with a heart-shaped desert on its surface. The sharp, naked branches of the trees in the forest towered over her like a cage but she no longer felt eerie or threatened by them. It hadn't originally occurred to her that there were worlds in the Realm of Darkness, just like there were in the light. This world was as peaceful as worlds of darkness went. Though it was always dark it was only mildly cold. The white that covered the ground wasn't snow but a thick blanket of pure white petals and leaves that she pushed a trail through as she walked to her destination: the grassy knoll in the forest.

The purple grass rustled under her feet as she got to the crest. She glanced at her surroundings; this part was the most dangerous. Seeing that it was clear, she summoned her Keyblade and pointed it straight up at the moon's heart. A beam of light shot out, hitting the moon in the centre of its heart and the heart shimmered. Its surface appeared mirror-like from below as it slowly formed an image, fuzzy at first but it came more and more into focus. Wayward golden towers stood tall in the world of Castle Oblivion. She sighed with relief while the image faded. So it was still standing.

The sound of rustling leaves and snapping twigs got her attention. She glanced down at the edge of the forest around the hill. Purple-veined Neoshadows twitched among the trunks of trees and pools of darkness opened up on the ground for more to crawl out. She looked down at Rainfell in her hand. While it was revealed they would keep coming but it was no use putting it away when so many had already shown up. Her lips quirked in amusement at this game she played with the Heartless every time. She twirled her Keyblade and tossed it into the air in a whirlwind of light. It morphed, dismantling piece by piece until only the keychain remained intact and then reassembled itself in the form of a new weapon entirely.

She caught the machine gun that fell back down and lined up the sights before opening fire on the Neoshadows. They started to charge once the first few went down under a rain of magic bullets. As they came into closer range the gun became unwieldly in combat. But no matter, she had other keychains.

A replacement spell was the only way to switch the keychain out fast enough in battle. Rainfell was replaced by Brightcrest and it took on a slightly altered appearance. Now a rifle, she took aim again. More powerful shots with stunning accuracy could fell a Neoshadow with one hit. They went down in a puff of smoke and black ooze one after the other as the swarm advanced until one got close enough to try to jump on her from behind. The keychain changed, rearranging as she turned to face it. The Neoshadow found itself impaled on the golden blade of a flowery sword with a draping bouquet instead of a knuckle bow. Its body disappeared and she cut through the smoke with the sword to keep her vision clear. She charged down to meet the swarm.

Her blade cut through necks, torsos and limbs with deadly precision. Fighting these creatures for so many years had honed her skills with a weapon and her awareness of them greatly. But as the army closed in tightly the precision strikes were no longer enough to keep them all at bay. The gunblade of Hyperdrive sliced through Heartless like a hot knife in butter and when they tried to crowd her in the halberd of Master's Defender beat them away with a few strong swings. Up ahead there were only a few more Neoshadows before she could make it through to the other side of the swarm. Fairy Stars in a colourful axe form hacked through five Heartless smoothly and then she was clear to the edge of the forest.

She looked up. It would be easy to make a run for it from here but she turned back to observe what was left of the Neoshadows. The group had shrunk significantly; there were perhaps only fifteen left, no more than twenty. They kept stalking towards her down the slope of the hill, much more reserved now that they'd watched her put up a fight but they weren't leaving. Her lips quirked into a brief smirk. She could take fifteen to twenty Neoshadows. And perhaps an uphill battle would be exactly what she needed to give her a good workout.

Fairy Stars swapped places with Royal Radiance. The axe dismantled and reformed into the shape of a wicked scythe with a golden blade that was sharpened on both sides and had an axe head opposite to it. A heart emblem connected the blade to a pink handle with blue ribbon spiralling down its length to the crown-shaped figurine at the end. She counted the Heartless again, quickly formulating three pathways to take them all out in one sweep at once. The pathway would be determined by whoever made the first move.

The Neoshadow nearest to her jumped into a pool of darkness. As it reappeared behind her she swung the axe side down and cut its body vertically in half. The next one lunged for her. She charged at it, swinging the heavy scythe above her to gain momentum for when the scythe separated its upper body from the lower half. She kept it swinging, using its weight to propel her forwards to the next monster and cut through it with the sharpened upper edge. The Neoshadows rushed at her again, foolishly meeting their ends on the blades of the scythe as she ran to meet them head on.

She slid to a halt on the hillcrest and slammed the point of the scythe into the ground so its weight wouldn't throw her off balance. She looked back at her work. Nothing but black smoke and rising pink hearts remained of the vanquished Neoshadows. With the Keyblade out of sight no more readily appeared. Royal Radiance disappeared in a flash.

Wind rattled the tree branches and blew the stark white petals and leaves over the knoll. She savoured the sweet smell of the petals and gazed up at the moon one more time.

"Even darkness can be beautiful in its own way," she whispered whimsically.

With this dark world calm once again, she turned around and returned on the path whence she had come.

* * *

 **A/N: If I've become anything really over the course of writing this, it's lazier. Also, Peanut Gallery, you have failed me.**


	6. Villain's Vale

**Villain's Vale**

The interior of this building was an odd mix of rough, cave-like surfaces, fine gothic structures and an industrial factory with all of the pipes, cables and gears intruding into rooms like giant, metal worms. A medieval atmosphere permeated through the rooms via the tapestries that hung from many of the walls or draped over balustrades like flags. Kairi had found that the only way up and down this tower was through a teleporting lift system that worked with lilac crystals and was often made more difficult to navigate by sometimes requiring detours to get between teleport nodes. As she gradually managed to navigate her way down (sometimes up as she experimented with teleport nodes) she kept her ears and eyes peeled. However, every floor, room or balcony she explored was just as empty and dilapidated as the last.

Eerie silence sat heavily in the spaces between walls. Her footsteps echoed back to her as the loudest sound in the building. Even the creaks in the walls and the whistle of the wind were loud in her ears. In the narrow hallway she was currently walking down she came across another teleport node in an alcove and activated it. In a flash it brought her into a large room that was almost blinding with how colourful it was after all of the dark features she'd seen so far.

The room's brightness mostly came from iridescent coloured tiles that paved the entire room and its double-domed ceiling. The windows were filled with stained glass that cast a dim but reverent light onto the tiled floor that looked like a round stained glass window itself. Some of the windows were cracked or broken and doors around the edge of the room that had been beaten down let clear daylight into the atrium. Kairi's heart leaped as she grinned. She was almost out; she just had to find a way to get down from the teleport node.

The node was in the middle of decorative crossbeams high above the floor and just under the domes. Two paths crossed each other and connected to a ledge around the room. Without Sora's Glide it would be too dangerous for her to jump down so she carefully sidled along a narrow beam to the safer ledge. A mosaic mural decorated the wall between the ledge and the ceiling with a series of grand images that were continuous and cycled around the wall so Kairi couldn't tell where the story began or ended. It mostly depicted women in robes performing grand feats of sorcery, militarism and beast taming but at the end of each crossbeam was a statue in relief of a kneeling woman clothed head to toe in draping robes. In their cupped hands they held more of those teleport node crystals but all except one were either dull or cracked. Confident that she knew what she was doing now, Kairi reached out to place a hand against the crystal and it teleported her in a quick flash.

* * *

Zexion examined the items he'd just received from the moogles in the marketplace and nodded. Nothing extraordinary – only the usual recovery items he used in his dealings with the monsters he studied – but it was exceptional quality, as usual. He paid them and gave them perfunctory words of gratitude before he turned away. It was only when he was lost among the crowd that he put them away in his Lexicon. The illusion to keep his magic book hidden would be much easier to cast when he was in a location that was harder to notice.

Once he put the book away he looked up and observed the crowd around him. It was a market day so the place was more crowded than usual. Even so, today in particular was oddly busy. As the calamities of the darkness lay further and further behind them and the restoration works brought the town closer to its former glory the people were gaining the confidence to venture out again. The protection of the automated security system added to that sense of safety; it had taken a while for Zexion to find a way to stop it identifying him as a Nobody.

In the height of its spring Radiant Garden smelled sweet. Though Zexion's physical sense was dulled the goodness and elation that filled the hearts around him exuded the sweet scent of light. He took a deep breath and furrowed his brow. The sweetness was unusually heady. Even with so many people in a state of happiness that suppressed the darkness in most hearts there couldn't possibly be this much light. Every heart had even a little bit of bitter darkness to muffle it and just this morning the scent hadn't been so powerful. So something had changed.

Frowning in confusion, Zexion weaved his way through the throngs of people until he could get into a dark alleyway and open a portal. He stepped into it and instantly walked into his tower room. As the portal closed behind him he sniffed. The sweet scent was stronger here, despite the town being across the valley. He hummed thoughtfully. It could only mean one thing: a Princess of Heart had arrived at Villain's Vale.

However, that was curious in and of itself. The darkness had left this place for several months now and the only things remaining were muted undertones of bitterness and smoke that just wouldn't go away for some reason. If someone else had taken up new residence in this place he would have noticed, so she was here on her own.

Interest piqued, he smirked and opened another dark corridor. Of all of the Princesses of Heart he knew of (and he knew them all) there was only one who had ever found a way to another world by herself. It was only a matter of finding her in this place.

* * *

Kairi blinked in surprise as darkness and humid, musty air that was heavy with a sour odour suddenly enveloped her. She pouted. The teleport node hadn't taken her to the ground floor at all! The only light in this cavern came from the crystal beside her, glowing dimly enough to see but it was cracked. It would be better at this rate to go back to the large room and try to climb down so Kairi touched the crystal again. It sparked and crackled, sending a jolt into her hand that stung and burned at once. She cried out and yanked her hand away. The crystal spluttered a few more sparks and then went still, resuming its dim glow.

"Yikes. Looks like that teleporter is a one-way," Kairi muttered to herself disappointedly.

She looked back and forth. The teleport node was at a dead end and the rest of the way was a dark, arched tunnel. Surely there must have been another way to leave, so she let her eyes adjust to the darkness before she put her arms out and began to creep forwards.

The stone walls were rough and damp. The sound of dripping could be heard everywhere and every now and then Kairi's feet hit something that clattered or clanked. She cringed every time. Her hands frequently brushed over iron bars and torches but she had no means of lighting them. She cursed herself for not spending the past few months urging Sora and Riku to at least teach her a Fire spell.

When she turned the corner there was a broken part of the ceiling that allowed sunlight to spill through and light the tunnel. She jumped in fright, having her fears confirmed. The light shone directly on a mass of skeletons tangled in each other with ragged clothes and broken armour and weapons, all of them distinctly human. Individual bones littered the floor and though they could barely be seen there were bones and skeletons lying behind the bars of cells with some pieces trapped in shackles or torture devices. Nausea gurgled in Kairi's stomach. She put a hand over her mouth as she walked slowly through this corridor of the dungeon, trying not to look too long at the grisly sights. At the very least, she thought, they'd been there for long enough that the flesh had rotted away otherwise they would appear more gruesome and the air might have been nigh unbreathable.

Then, horrifically, a great roar echoed through the dungeon coming from somewhere down below.

* * *

Zexion lit the torches in the next corridor with his magic. Empty as well. He sniffed again. She was still down here but she was moving around too much and too quickly, making it difficult to pinpoint her. It occurred to him that she might not be on this level and he sighed. He was about to turn and follow the corridor he was originally following but the sound of rattling chains made him stop. He looked down the corridor he'd just lit. Even with the firelight it was dim, which only accentuated the other light beyond the doorway at the end. It was even dimmer than the torches but it was just enough to see the shadows moving, wriggling.

He took a step down the corridor and then another. The rattling sounded again, this time accompanied by audible shuffling and a low growl. Zexion raised an eyebrow and continued to approach warily, readying the magic on his fingers to summon the Lexicon should he need to fight the beast.

At the end of the corridor was a huge chamber that was so tall it ran through every level of the dungeon and had sunlight shining in through clerestory windows at the top. Several corridors led into this chamber and at other levels of the dungeon were viewing decks to look down upon a floor so large it could be an arena. Though it was so large, almost half of the floor space was taken up by the crumpled form of a black beast, wrapped up in its wings. Chains stretched from its body to O-rings on the floor around the edge of the arena, short enough to prevent escape but loose enough to permit movement. Zexion's first footstep into the room echoed in the tall space and the beast shifted.

It unfurled its ragged wings while Zexion stood still and observed. There were shackles on the creature's ankles and all four of its wrists and a heavy collar at the base of its serpentine neck. It uncurled its tail and glared down at him with small, beady eyes out of its ugly, flat, tentacle-covered face. Zexion merely cocked his head to the side.

"Hm… so this is the chained beast of the basement?" he wondered.

"I am no mere beast," it hissed at him in a deep voice. "I have been held prisoner here for some time."

"I know. I could smell you. You've been here much longer than I have, that's for sure, creature of darkness," Zexion said with a smirk. "Although it is rather fitting. A dragon belongs to a dungeon."

"How dare you mock me," it boomed, sliding its forked tongue out to taste the air around him. " _No-person_."

At that Zexion frowned. "You're hardly in your prime either." He leaned forward, making a show of sniffing the air around the beast. "You're the reason that the smell of darkness lingers so persistently in such small measures."

The dragon roared in offence and lunged for him. Zexion merely took a few steps back until he was under the ceiling of the corridor he came down. The dragon stretched its neck out as far as it could and its jaws snapped the air in front of him but it went no further. Zexion raised his eyebrows teasingly. Just as he'd thought, the chains only gave the dragon enough freedom to roam the arena. He looked down. Right at the boundary of the corridor and the arena was a gap in the floor with the very tips of spikes visible.

"Well, while I'm here and having difficulty, I might as well try to keep her safe," he said to himself. He turned to the dragon again. "Goodbye then. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time here."

The dragon roared – a terrible, ugly sound that reverberated through every level of the dungeon.

* * *

It had taken some exploring but Kairi finally managed to find a cobwebbed stairway leading downwards. While she was still in the relative safety of the upper levels she had poked around to scavenge whatever items she could find, just in case she ran into whatever beast made that terrible noise. Unfortunately, none of the teleport nodes she found were working and any holes or cracks in the ceiling were too difficult to climb to, so she had no choice now but to head downwards and try to find another way up.

The staircase ended on a round landing suspended above the second level. Kairi gaped at it. Unlike the restrictive arched walls above, this floor was completely open and covered in machinery. There were gears everywhere, most likely operated by the various levers and valves scattered between them, their crystal power sources still glowing enough to light the room in eerie green. There were skeletons on this level too, crushed between gears, stretched in half on stretchers or dangling precariously in cages hanging from pulleys and cranes around the room that had metal spikes on the _inside_.

Kairi blew out a puff of air. Who designed this place and why make it so frustrating to navigate? She stepped off the landing and onto the horizontal gear in front of it, turning the wheel that moved the jackscrew beneath it downwards. As the gear passed other gears it turned them a little bit on its way down and Kairi kept her eyes up, watching how the cranes and pulleys shifted. She groaned and flopped over the handles. It was going to be a long crawl to the end of this dungeon.

* * *

Zexion lit the last torch on this level and stared thoughtfully at the giant jackscrew spiralling up to a dark tunnel. There was no way for him to manually get up to the next level but the intensifying scent informed him that he was getting closer. With no steps to climb, he was about to open a dark portal but another scent in the vicinity made him stop. He took a deep breath, trying to get a sense of its flavour. It was the smell of darkness mixed with the mineral scent of fresh water. Not much of a scent to follow but it was a familiar one nonetheless. Finding Kairi could wait, if his priority was keeping her safe then he had to deal with this first. He resumed opening the portal and stepped into it, going for a different destination.

* * *

On level two, Kairi found a small gear with a handle to turn and jumped onto it. With any luck, this would finally be the one that would lead somewhere and sure enough, to her pleasant surprise, when it reached the floor the handle didn't tighten, signalling that it could turn some more. The gear descended into a deep hole in the floor and continued onwards until it came out in a brightly lit chamber.

Torches along the edges of the room and the corridor leading away from the chamber were ablaze with flames but they had an odd kind of luminescence. They burned much too bright to be merely flames. Kairi glanced at them warily. If they were lit, even by magic, it meant that there might have been someone else around but there wasn't a maze of corridors and pathways to choose from here. There was only one way to go, so that's where she went. With such similar architecture to the first level, this part of the dungeon hopefully had a teleport node she could access.

The corridor spiralled around and around and around with no changes to be seen. Little alcoves with torches and mirrors lined the path but it just kept going in one direction. With no way of knowing how far she was from the beginning or how close she was to the end she became mentally exhausted, just walking numbly down the corridor. One of the mirrors she passed by was cracked. She only spared it a glance before she kept walking, hoping for the monotonous path to end (if it even _had_ an end). As she moved on a shadowy image of herself remained and glanced in her direction.

* * *

The castle of ice was still in ruin. Zexion scuffed one of his boots over the slippery floor where melted ice had frozen again. Yet things were not unchanged. Zexion eyed a mysterious hole in the floor of the throne room that had punched through the lower level and into a huge pit even below that. The rubble from it was scattered around the ground floor. Then there was the case of the mirror. Zexion turned to the podium and took the icy steps carefully until he stood before the great frame. Some ice that had melted slightly so as to become warped filled the space where the glass would have been but it was all gone, even the pieces that had been stuck in the frame.

Concerned about that, Zexion opened a corridor of darkness to the little garden Giselle had kept. The plants were doing better than ever now that they were free to enjoy some warmth every now and then but that had caused the garden beds to become wildly overgrown. Zexion paid no mind to that but did frown even more to see that the lens that had been kept in the roof of the gazebo was gone. One of the pillars had collapsed as well, causing Zexion to wonder if it had been broken and removed or stolen. With nothing else to see down here, he transported himself to the highest room in Giselle's castle.

The room in the tallest tower was bare, as it had been when Giselle lived here. It was practically a glorified gazebo, having barely any wall space—it was mostly wide doors with window panes that looked out to all four cardinal directions. To the south Zexion easily spied Disney Town away in the distance. He stepped out onto the balcony ringing the tower and began to walk around it, looking out over the landscape for anything unusual, like a new tower or palace but once he was facing northeast he spotted something that left him rooted on the spot.

Out that way was supposed to be nothing but mountain ranges and alpine forest but the mountains had been decimated to create a truly absurd structure that sat bulbously like a tumour on the landscape. It had very little foundation to support it and with so much mass it surely should have fallen from that angle but it seemed to be hovering in place. Giant icicles hung over its sides and some boulders and snatched samples of forested land orbited it like they were tentatively looking for a place to fit in.

"Well now, that is curious," Zexion remarked, climbing onto the balustrade. A dark portal opened for him to walk into but he had no exit yet. He walked through the darkness for a little while, smelling his way to the new landmass. There was a lot of darkness there, no doubt about that but this scent was easier to pinpoint since darkness had always been a much easier scent for him to deal with than light. Once he had found a suitable place to land he stepped out into the light again.

The freezing air bit his skin, stinging so much that he winced. He'd entered a small hanging valley with a large lake in the middle of it that was frozen so still and smooth like a mirror. A small forest surrounded the lake with leafless weeping willows hanging over the banks. Little frozen droplets sparkled on their twigs where leaves would be. At the top of the valley a stream feeding the lake was frozen into a winding staircase leading up to a throne of ice placed in front of a fanciful palace made entirely of ice.

A woman in white danced alone in the middle of the lake. Her long tutu and cape billowed like white clouds when she spun and jumped, doing the most complicated turns and leaps she could muster. Her slippers glimmered in the sunlight and when her toes tapped the ice they pinged sweetly—it could have been the sound of a magic spell. She turned his way and though her face was fuller now her features were recognisable to him and his to her. Her expression sharpened with her wicked smirk and she danced towards him.

At the edge of the lake near the bank where he stood Giselle stopped and picked up the sides of her skirt for an elegant curtsy. "My, my, what a pleasant surprise," she said icily. "I didn't expect to meet _nobody_ here."

Zexion fixed her with a deadpan stare as she giggled into her hand. "There are so many things I want to know about this but perhaps I should start with the most obvious: how are you still alive?"

"Does it wound your pride to realise that your strike did not kill me as you intended?"

"I don't have pride to wound. I'm just very curious. You disappeared after the battle. I and everyone else assumed you to be dead."

She smiled and turned away to illustrate her next words with her dancing. "As Queen of the Snow I follow its lore, or perhaps it follows mine. And just like the snow, from the water than runs from my body I can be born again."

"But you're not the same as you were. You've obtained something extra."

She smirked wryly. "Always so perceptive, aren't you? I suppose it won't hurt me now to tell you that I have my mother to thank for the visage you see before you."

"Your dead mother?"

"Or what remained of her." Giselle shrugged. "Though she isn't so much dead anymore as she is non-existent."

"What did you do?" Zexion narrowed his eyes.

"I decided that it wasn't enough to just inherit her life—her castle, her mirror, her lens. _I_ decided that _I_ was going to be _more_ than her, just like _I'm_ going to _more_ than everyone else who has spurned me!" she snapped through clenched teeth. She dropped her perfect form, stamping her foot into a wide stance with her hands curled into fists at her sides. The ground beneath Zexion's feet trembled and the ice on the willow trees tinkled as the branches shook.

"I finally took everything that was hers. It gave me so much." Her hardened expression softened and she regained her composure. "Until now I didn't really appreciate the breadth of my mother's knowledge and power. I know how to do _this_ now…"

She stepped backwards slowly as a portal of darkness opened behind her and swallowed her completely. Zexion tensed. Even if he could smell her, she could end up anywhere from within the corridors. The moment he caught a whiff of her stepping back into the light he leaped out of reach, just as she had reappeared behind him and tried to grab. She tumbled into the snow as Zexion summoned his Lexicon.

"Aw, Zexy, why so cold?" she teased, putting on a pitiful pout and blinking big, cute eyes at him. "Weren't we friends?"

"As I am, we could never have been friends, let alone anything else you wanted," Zexion retorted. "Now tell me, what is all of this?"

He gestured widely to the valley around them, although they both knew he meant more. Giselle grinned and gracefully got to her feet, brushing the snow off with magic.

"Since my old home was destroyed I had to make a new one," she explained with an accusatory tone. "And I thought, 'instead of simply replacing what I lost, why don't I take the opportunity to build something much grander'? A world of my own, so to speak."

"A world?"

"For as long as I've lived the world of snow has never been able to conquer the world of mice but recently I realised that it's because there was no world of snow, not really. The world always belonged to the mice. So I'm making a new world, a true world of snow from which I can fortify my strength of rule and conquer the cosmos."

"This isn't a real world," Zexion told her dismissively. "This is just a grotesque hunk of landmass."

"Of course, real worlds have hearts. Do you know how to obtain one? I think that for the greatest world from which the empress shall rule only the greatest heart will do. The one they call Kingdom Hearts."

Zexion's eyes widened fractionally. "How do you know of Kingdom Hearts?"

"My mother knew of it, though had never previously thought to impart that knowledge to me," Giselle answered bitterly. "You almost shared it with me once. 'A heart so great that it is the Heart of All Hearts'. I could find it… or I could make one."

"You'll never be able to create your own Kingdom Hearts. Its power and nature are as vague and mysterious as they are awesome. It's a fool's errand."

"You sound very certain. Do I detect a hint of personal experience?" she tittered. She stepped closer and with each step forward Zexion mirrored her with a step back. "Then you do know how to create one."

"I do not. All documented attempts at forging a heart have failed."

"Except for one," she added.

"Our joint effort was certainly a failure. While we achieved a substitute that could mimic the heart's function it couldn't be called a real heart. It was a very useful experiment, though."

"Experiment," she spat. "It's always about your experiments."

With a quick swipe of her arm an array of ice spikes shot out of the ground and through Zexion but he merely wavered and then disappeared as if he'd never been there at all. Behind a nearby willow tree, the real Zexion opened a dark portal and left before she could try to strike again. She sighed. Honestly, she should have expected him to pull a trick like that.

She didn't share Zexion's talent for scenting people in the dark so there was no way for her to follow him. Instead she transported herself to the entrance hall of her new palace – a grand, round room with a fountain in the middle, frozen into a delicate sculpture. She climbed through all of the levels to the tower, marvelling at her architectural achievement as she went. At the topmost level she exited the tower stairway to a balcony surrounding a massive dome held up by sophisticated arches. She danced around the balcony, passing a few arches, and then bouréed inside.

Thousands of clear orbs hovered in the air, hidden in the dome. Giselle marvelled at them, perfectly smooth, spherical and about the size of an eyeball. She danced under their charming beauty until she came to a raised platform in the centre of the room with a large crystal ball placed upon an embellished tripod. A distorted reflection gazed back at her from its curved surface and she stretched an arm out to receive something.

"O wonderful eyes of mine, show me something divine."

The orbs began to swirl around the room slowly, moving past one another to rearrange. Several of them floated down to Giselle and orbited her, displaying tiny images of what they could see through their mirror shard. She clasped her hands and grinned with delight.

"My, these scenes are all very delightful. But wait…"

She picked one orb in particular and peered into it. Despite only a brief appearance she recognised the face and hair of a Princess of Heart before she turned away and left. Giselle grinned and kneeled by the podium, placing the orb on one of the little holders on the tripod around the large crystal ball. The crystal ball came to life, watching the same scene as the little orb. She twitched her fingers like a puppeteer, working her magic on this particular shard.

"Shall we play a game, Princess?"

Down on level three of the dungeon, the shadow image crawled out of the mirror, taking a shard with it that glinted brightly out of its right eye. It looked in the direction that Kairi had gone and started to follow.

* * *

 **A/N: Daaamn... this chapter is choppy but I couldn't think of much else that I could do to cut out all of the boring parts of Kairi's dungeon crawl. Needless to say, this continues for the next couple of chapters, so stay tuned. Next chapter should be next week... probably.**


	7. Mirror Match

**Mirror Match**

"This place again?" Kairi muttered to herself, grasping the metal bars in front of her and peering in as much as she could. There had been a place like this on every level she had encountered so far – a large room with a balcony looking over a deep dark pit and sunlight shining from the barred clerestory windows above. She'd explored it up on the first level but without the torches around the edges lighting it brightly there was nothing to see. By the time she'd gotten to the second level, the arched doorways allowing access to this room had been closed off with metal bars but they weren't the same metal bars she'd seen on the cells. They didn't connect to the arch; they were tipped with spikes and rose out of gaps in the floor built to hide them.

The hallway hadn't been endless after all but it only led here and though she walked around and around the arena she couldn't find any other way out. She crouched to the floor and hung her head between her knees. So the entire dungeon had led to a dead end. She was trapped here and she was probably going to die here; her wonderful adventure amounted to her starving to death underground where nobody would ever find her.

Footsteps behind her made her lift her head. Was there someone else? Were they still here after lighting all of the torches? She turned around and right behind her loomed a shadow clone of herself with fingers sharpened to claws that were poised to strike. Kairi rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding a nasty scratch but she didn't get far. Her bag snagged against the floor. The shadow clone still stood over her and brought its other hand down to strike. Kairi got up, evading the attack by a very narrow margin again. Since the bag was getting in the way she shrugged it off her shoulders and threw it aside. She summoned Destiny's Embrace and squatted into a defensive stance, warily stepping back and trying to gauge the opponent.

The shadow clone lunged for her. She blocked and parried as much as she could but its movements were too fast for her to find space to land her own hits. Its claws occasionally slipped through her defences and tore at her skin and clothes. With each blow it had Kairi retreating backwards.

Her wounds stung but with the relentless assault she had no time to reach for any items in her pouch. The shadow clone commanded all of her attention as it slowly whittled away at her. Then suddenly it reared back, lifting its arms in preparation for a larger attack. Silver light glinted out of its right eye and in that moment Kairi saw her opportunity to counter. The clone went to scratch ruthlessly with both hands but Kairi parried the move and instead of stepping back she pushed forwards. The clone stumbled back and left itself wide open. Kairi swung her Keyblade down the middle of its body and a terrible screech like a knife dragged across a mirror erupted from it. It reeled back and Kairi pressed forward again. She knocked its hand away when it tried to reach back to scratch and swung the Keyblade to the side of its head where the gleam shone.

The sound of glass smashing resounded in the corridor and the shadow clone stumbled into a wall. It turned around and looked at her with large cracks radiating from the right side of its head. Kairi grinned. She stepped forward to swing down hard on that spot but the clone caught her Keyblade in its hands. It held onto the shaft tightly and jabbed its claws on the other hand at her neck. Kairi tilted her head back, feeling the rush of air as the claws missed by a hair's breadth.

The shadow clone shoved her and she stumbled. It swept her feet out from under her with a kick and she fell. It got back to its feet swiftly and lunged again. Kairi rolled out of the way and onto her feet, going back to her defences as the clone attacked relentlessly again. It was faster this time and its attacks hit heavier but it had gotten less accurate with those strikes, missing most times and giving Kairi a small opening to attack with a jab. The clone struck out recklessly and Kairi dodged the clumsy attack to the left, leaving its damaged side exposed. She hit it again as hard as she could. A long, loud cracking sound echoed after the smash and little pieces of glass tinkled when they fell to the floor.

The cracks on the clone lengthened to reach its entire body, even sprouting some tributary cracks on perpendicular planes. The right side of its head was nearly gone and it twitched and swayed erratically like it was concussed. It lurched towards her. Kairi started and blocked the sudden attack but was unprepared for the shadow clone's weight behind it, nearly knocking her down. It had her retreating again but this time she tried to focus on avoiding attacks rather than blocking.

The clone hopped back with its hand poised to strike. It darted in like a viper and Kairi couldn't get out of the way faster, she had to block. However, the clone suddenly changed tactics and instead of going for a scratch it pulled its fingers together and jabbed, narrowly slipping through Kairi's defence. Claws pierced her chest right above her heart. She cried out in pain and leaped back from the strike that had been shallow but stung. As she stumbled from that hit the shadow clone closed in for another scratch and this time landed it on her weapon arm, slashing deeply. Kairi put her other arm around it, holding the injured one to her side as she stepped backwards as quickly as she could. One step suddenly found the floor had disappeared from under her feet and she fell.

She landed hard on her injured arm and whimpered at the strong pain. Looking up, the shadow clone leaned over her and struck out. Kairi rolled out of the way. Its fingers smashed on the concrete floor. It turned and looked across its arm at Kairi. Neither of them was in an ideal position to attack but Kairi was able to flip her Keyblade over and stab at the weak point again. The clone's head shattered even more, little pieces of glass dropped to the floor. She dislodged the Keyblade and stabbed again, clenching her teeth as she put as much might into it as she could. The clone shattered even more so that now it didn't even have a recognisable face and the Keyblade's teeth got wedged in the gap. Nonetheless, the monster tried to reach across its broken arm to attack Kairi again. Its fingers scraped across the concrete, making a high-pitched screech when it narrowly missed. Kairi tried to pull her Keyblade out but it was stuck fast.

" _Wait,"_ Kairi thought all of a sudden, _"I don't know spells per se but I know I have magic."_

Kairi gathered her magic at her weapon hand and it appeared as an orb of white light. It dispersed into her weapon and she watched half in desperation and fascination as it travelled down the shaft of her Key to the teeth where it burst into a bright flash that sent glass spraying all over the corridor. Kairi turned away to shield her eyes.

When she looked back the monster had gone still with the head and most of the shoulders completely blown off. The rest of its body began to crack until it was so covered in fractures that its dark appearance became silvery white. The unstable pieces cascaded onto the floor into a pile of glass that started to disintegrate into black smoke.

Kairi panted and rested her eyes for just a moment, taking deep breaths to try to quell her racing heart. That shadow clone had come out of nowhere. She opened her eyes and looked around, keeping still to see if anything else would jump out at her. After about a minute nothing had happened except for the smokiness building up from the disintegrating remains so she sat up slowly and reached into her pouch for a potion. She'd only thought to put one in the pouch on her hip and then in the heat of battle she hadn't had the presence of mind to use it when she was losing ground. She would have to be more careful about that.

She guzzled the whole jar of the sweet drink but it wasn't enough to heal her wounds completely. As she looked around for her backpack she spotted something curious on the floor right beside her – a shard that wasn't disappearing. It was a bit bigger than the others and had an opalescent appearance and a rainbow glow. Kairi picked it up and examined it but she wasn't sure what to make of it so she deposited it in the empty potion jar and corked the lid. The jar went back into her pocket. At the very least she would hang onto it until she could find some way of determining what it was. For now she had to try to find her things.

As she looked around she realised that she was sitting in a small depression in the floor. One tile was sunk a little lower than the others. She swore it wasn't like that before. Her bag was slumped in the junction between the wall and the floor right next to the sunken tile, where it had fallen after being thrown aside. Kairi went straight to it before anything else and rummaged through her collected items for another potion to clear up all of the injuries that the first one hadn't. Once she was healed and relieved she slung her bag onto her shoulder again and sighed.

Now to find a way out. That sunken tile may have provided a clue but she had no idea what to do with it. She stood up and stared at it in puzzlement for a moment before looking around. The torch on the wall right beside her caught her eye. Kairi squinted at it. It was different to the other torches on this level. They had all been fixed to the wall on sconces of a simple design but this one was ornate and appeared to be removable. It was tilted to the side slightly so Kairi adjusted it to stand squarely in its holder.

Concrete scraping against concrete whispered in the corridor, audible now that Kairi wasn't distracted by a fight. She turned to the tile. She wasn't quick enough to see it move but it was no longer sunken.

"Aha!" she exclaimed excitedly. She took the decorated torch out of its holder, having to heft it a bit since it was iron and heavy. That scraping noise echoed again and the floor rumbled a little as the tiles in front of her gradually fell away to create a broad staircase going downwards. "I guess when I threw my bag over here it knocked this torch out of place a bit. Lucky for me."

She took the torch with her down to the next level.

* * *

The scene in the large crystal ball dissolved and the small spying orb cracked bit by bit until it exploded into shards. Giselle flinched as the pieces went flying around her. She scowled at the empty crystal ball.

"She's stronger than before," she growled, clenching her hands into fists. "Although that might have been expected. Ugh!"

She got up looked at the other orbs hovering close beside her. "I suppose that was a distraction at best but I have more up my sleeve. And I'll be much better equipped when we clash again."

Giselle grinned wickedly. She turned to the other orbs floating nearby, orbiting her like they were vying for her attention. This time she had promised herself that she would play the game better than before and now was the time to fortify her plans. With a gesture they came closer and she looked into them deeply, appraising what they were showing her with thoughtful scrutiny.

* * *

Zexion teleported directly into the basement lab under his old home. This was a dangerous venture for him but there was something he needed to access. When Ansem had gone to destroy The Organisation's Kingdom Hearts he had been so sure that his plan would work, although he didn't divulge it to Zexion at the time. As far as he'd been aware they were both dark and mysterious strangers to each other, not the kind of people one would trust their ultimate plan to. But Ansem must have stored his data somewhere and the only piece of technology Zexion could think of with the capacity to calculate values large enough to amount to something as immeasurable as Kingdom Hearts was right here.

However, he was met with an immediate blockade: the password had been changed. He shook his head. He didn't have time for this. Kairi could probably hold off a measly minion of the Snow Queen but that dragon was another story. At the very least there was no way for her to get into its arena but she would still need a way out of the dungeon. Zexion thought about this as he cracked into the code of the computer and let himself through the secure login gate via the backdoor. He pursed his lips. The interface looked different to how he remembered it but he recognised it as an older version of the operating system. Nonetheless, he tried searching for the relevant data but most of what came up were error messages and corrupt data warnings. Zexion sighed and placed his palms flat on the desk. He could make an attempt to fix it but he could see just by looking that he likely wouldn't be able to straighten out all of it. He would need a better performing system. He would need The Grid.

"Hey! Who the heck are you?!"

Zexion turned around to face the entrance. A teenager with short black hair seemed to be the one who had spoken and she had just walked in with a woman whose long brown hair was tied up in a thick braid. With a flash of green light the teenager summoned an impractically large shuriken. The older woman put a hand on her shoulder.

"Calm down, Yuffie. Let him answer first," she said, giving Zexion an expectant look.

"But don't you think he looks mighty suspicious, Aerith?"

Aerith's gaze shifted from Zexion to the computer and her eyes narrowed. "And just what are you doing with this computer?" she demanded, folding her arms. "Who gave you the password?"

"I say he doesn't have it," Yuffie said, brandishing her weapon. "The only people who have password access are the official executive members of the Restoration Committee – and also Sora, Donald and Goofy – and this guy sure isn't one of them."

Wary of the girl, Zexion took a defensive step back and crouched slightly into a fighting stance – the wrong thing to do as it prompted Aerith to summon her own weapon in a flurry of white and yellow petals and light. "You know, you're right."

Zexion clicked his tongue and summoned his Lexicon. He didn't have time and now he was drawn into a fight with two of the people in this world he least wanted to cross. Could this possibly get any worse?

* * *

Kairi was on the fifth level now and it was just as frustrating as those before it. Level four had had no teleport nodes and level five wasn't looking promising. With a frustrated huff she turned around to continue looking for any way out, even if it meant going down even further. She waited at the edge of the canal for another one of those floating tiles to come along and then hopped on.

The fourth level had been covered in tracks with no floor beneath them, meaning that to traverse across it she had to utilise the track cars that rolled along them automatically. Occasionally there was a large room with a track turntable where Kairi could manipulate the tracks to take her in a new direction, In terms of planning, level five was almost exactly the same as level four but it was completely covered in water. All dry paths were blocked by walls so the only way to get around was by riding the round platforms that floated along in the strong currents. Those currents were generated by whirlpools in some of the larger rooms that would sometimes suck her in and toss her out into a random canal, making this level even more difficult to navigate than the last. Kairi sat down on her tile and put her head in her hands, wondering where this one would take her this time. It bumped against the sides as it went around bends and corners but despite that travelling this way could have been quite relaxing. If only it wasn't so vexing.

The sound of rushing water up ahead made Kairi turn around, expecting to see another large archway into a whirlpool room but her eyes widened when what approached instead was the gaping maw of a stone snake. Water rushed into it at a pace much too fast for Kairi to paddle against even if she jumped off her tile and tried to swim and there were no ledges for her to jump to. She gulped as the tile slipped into the snake's mouth and there was a sudden drop into pitch black darkness. There was nothing to hold onto as the tile sped down the narrow tunnel, nearly throwing her off as it slid up the sides of sharp bends. Kairi's heart hammered until at last the tile was expelled from the tunnel into a fiery light.

She winced at the sudden brightness and had to squint at first to get a look at her surroundings. The waterslide had thrown her onto a large pool in a room with a domed ceiling and a ledge running around the entirety of it. The water gushing out of the tunnel kept the platform moving until it bumped into a cluster of other platforms and came to a standstill. A creaking waterwheel turning diligently on its own moved a spiralling screw that was pumping water back up to the fifth level, sometimes taking a tile back up with it. Not wanting to chance another round with the mechanics of level five, Kairi got up, wobbling a bit, and hopped across tiles until she was safely on the ledge.

Torches around this room were lit, making this another bright level. Kairi walked around the ledge and frowned. There was no way out. Aside from the waterslide exit and the water screw this room had no other entrance or exit. There was an arched frame like a doorway on one side of the room but it was completely blocked by a wall. Hitting it didn't do anything either.

Leaning back on her heels, Kairi folded her arms and pondered for a while. So far there hadn't been any true dead ends, unless this was truly the bottom of the dungeon. Although if that were the case, why build a doorway? Kairi looked around for any hints and noticed a huge jewel embedded in the top of the arch, angled so that it was as if it was staring down at her. She excitedly thought that it might be another teleport node but it wasn't glowing and was a different colour—a deep red that shone with the light around it, but not of its own merit. Kairi jumped up and down trying to touch it but it was too high up. The only way she might succeed would be with the Keyblade. She summoned it and tapped the jewel with the tip. It sparkled and then the walls rumbled. The smooth stone on the wall in the doorway slid by until it came to an opening and then stopped, giving her clear passage.

Kairi pumped her fist in triumph and hurried into the next corridor. It curved away in both directions. At first Kairi took a right but that led to a dead end, so she turned around and went the other way. At the other end was another jewel, this one mounted on the wall in arm's reach and beside it the wall was sunken in. She touched the jewel. The whole corridor felt like it was moving. Kairi almost lost balance as the wall in the depressed section slid past until it stopped at an opening, granting her access to yet another passage. She ran into it, grinning with determination. Though it was another frustrating mechanic, this one at least felt workable compared to the previous floor. Level six was going to get her out of here, she could feel it.

* * *

 **A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. This is my gift to you lovelies. And if you would like to review for the last update of this story before 2015 is over, feel free. It would make me happy. The next update will be in 2016.**

(smh at how much deus ex machina went into stopping Zexion from making it easy for Kairi.)


	8. Level 6

**Level 6**

The moving maze of level six went by much quicker than level five, although Kairi did run into several dead ends and sometimes created closed circuits that lead nowhere. Many of those short dead ends appeared to be storage space since Kairi often found plenty of treasure and items to the point that she was starting to run out of space to keep them. She had to make more careful decisions about what to keep or leave behind.

One of the paths she opened led into a small box of a room. Unlike other dead ends, this one wasn't just an empty space with loot haphazardly thrown into the corners. Flush against the wall to her left was a bureau and shelves packed with old books, scrolls and binders. The bureau itself was very tidy – no inkpots, pens or unfinished work left out; nobody had left here in a hurry – and the chair was tucked neatly under it. But the desk did have a couple of things laid out on it: a small, leather bound journal and a human skull. Kairi grimaced at the skull, finding it morbid so she turned to the journal. Despite being small it was fairly thick and was clamped shut with leather cord wrapped around it.

She unwound the cord and opened the book, coughing and sneezing when a small cloud of dust billowed from the pages. They were all yellowed and thin from age and some of the ink had faded but it was still readable. However, it was written in such an old style of cursive that the words were difficult to make out. A name was written on the inside of the front cover along with a title:

 _Sula Dentdelit_

 _Journal Vol. 14_

The writing began immediately on the first page in large blocks of text that Kairi had to concentrate very hard to read. There was what appeared to be a date and a brief record of the weather followed by the first slab of meaningful text:

 _Everything is so nice here but I feel so empty. It looks like a place I remember but I can't fathom how it could possibly still exist. It all fell to pieces and ruin after the war. I would never fancy that anything would look the same again and yet here it is like a fragment of the world I once knew. I haven't found a way out of here yet I believe I mayn't be able to. Every time I try to leave following the landmarks and rudimentary maps I have charted I find I have circled back to the other side. This place has become like a labyrinth that I have foolishly wandered into, detached wholly from the world and floating amid the dark cosmos in solitude. Perhaps this is my punishment?_

 _I still feel so empty. Is this just the darkness that has consumed me through my sadness? Or have I fragmented along with everything else? Or is this dismay? I would have thought I would be relieved to be wrong. The war was fought so hard that we destroyed the prize and yet as I sit here the sun shines through the leaves and branches like it always did. Light has not disappeared._

 _Light is why people fought and they died for a prize they could never hold. It defied its own destruction and so I fear that this cycle will only begin again. With light people are blinded to their own darkness and with darkness people are simply blind. Yet I am uncertain about where to go from here. I'll rest for now and maybe the answers will come in time. We took time for granted._

Kairi lowered the journal thoughtfully. This entry reminded her of something but she couldn't quite recall what, just that something she'd read brought to mind something she'd heard. However, she didn't have time to stand around here thinking about it for too long. She'd already eaten all her snacks a while ago and it wouldn't be long before she was hungry again. The journal went away into her bag, to be further read when she wasn't trapped in a dungeon somewhere.

Done with that little curiosity, she turned to the opposite wall. There was something of a magic circle drawn on it with large gems like the maze-shifting nodes inlaid at key points. Kairi stepped up to examine it but she couldn't read the runes on it at all. Stumped by that, she pressed on a small, purple jewel in the top left of the circle. The gem clicked but nothing seemed to have happened, even after Kairi waited for a whole minute. Shrugging, she pressed a blue one at the bottom right. Again, apparently nothing happened. This time she huffed. Surely finding two duds in a row couldn't be a coincidence so she tried pressing all of the gems as much as she could, even double-pressing them. Still nothing.

She put her hands on her hips and glared at the hemispherical obsidian jewel in the centre, larger than all of them. It was the only one she couldn't push like a button. She had no way of knowing but with the magic to activate it the jewel would have shown her the suite of changes that her button mashing had set into play in the dungeon. Hardly any of them would matter now but when Kairi pressed one final gem – a yellow, crescent-shaped one above the black gem – the walls around her rumbled like the maze was shifting again. This time it lasted a lot longer than any other time she'd touched a maze node. When it stopped it seemed that nothing had changed again but this time Kairi peered outside. The corridor was still there but if she ventured down its length she found that every doorway lined up with another so that there were no blocked paths. It seemed too good to be true but she didn't want to lose this opportunity by messing with the magic circle any more. She continued on her way to find the centre of this dungeon.

* * *

The maze was a bit easier to navigate without having to manually turn the paths and Kairi eventually found her way to a different corridor. The walls, ceiling and floor were cut from a different kind of stone and the corridors it led to were straight and narrow, rather than concentric to it. All but one of these corridors were dark. Kairi gulped, uneasily taking a step into the corridor with lit torches. The arch at the other end was almost completely dark but she could always hope that it was a stairway leading up as well as down.

She stepped over the threshold that had previously been barred until she tampered with the jewel mechanism into a room that she could feel the size of more than see it. She took a few confused steps into it when suddenly there was a loud growl that reverberated in the air and vibrated her bones. Her eyes gradually adjusted to the level of gloom here and the shadow of a great beast uncurling in front of her made her blood run cold. Its blood red eyes gleamed even in the dark as its tongue slithered out.

"Young woman… you must be the lady he spoke of."

"Whoa! You can talk?!" Kairi exclaimed. A second later she wasn't sure why she was so surprised. She'd seen monsters talk, although she supposed it was because she'd thought this was a regular beast and she'd never heard an ordinary animal talk.

The beast reared up to almost full height, revealing large wings, a serpentine neck and a long tail. Rattling metal chains followed its movement and Kairi's eyes darted around its form, eyeing the shackles that bound it. "Did you think me to be some drab creature?" it asked and its voice sounded a little bit amused. "I see… you don't have the perception that he does yet you're not just some droll maiden either. Then let's see how he likes it when he finds your melted flesh and charred bones as all that remain of you."

Kairi's eyes widened. The beast opened its mouth and a brief violet glow was the only warning she had to tumble out of the way as it shot a straight beam of fire so hot that it even sparked with lightning. Kairi took a moment to glance at the chain hanging out of her jacket pocket. She only had to take another look at the fearsome monster looming over her before she plucked the chain out of her pocket and used it to summon Lightwick. In a fight like this she needed all of the morale she could get from Sora's gift to her. In any case, it wasn't like Lightwick would be less powerful than Destiny's Embrace.

"Vorpal?" the beast exclaimed, turning to the flash in shock but upon seeing the Keyblade its eyes narrowed. "No… that is not the Vorpal form and yet the energy it emits reminds me of it."

"See something you don't like?" Kairi taunted, rushing in to strike. She slashed at its hand and made a small nick on its finger that had it hissing harshly. It promptly batted her out of the way.

It knocked her onto her back, backpack and all. She winced. She opened her eyes to get her bearings back and above her she spied a ring of bright light, very far above them. With a gasp, it hit her; she knew where she was. This place again: the pit. This was where every path on level six led and those balconies were there as viewing platforms to watch gladiatorial executions. There was no way for her to get out of this dungeon. She turned back to the beast and saw it flex its wings but it had a little difficulty since they were weighed down by chains shackled around the claws on the corners of its wings. And that spontaneously gave Kairi a new plan to escape the dungeon.

She stood up, Keyblade ready to strike but held out to the side in a less threatening manner. "Hey, er, dragon," she called out, uncertain as to how to address it, "why are you chained up down here?"

"Distract me with false concern, will you? When you wield a weapon that is certainly designed to destroy me?" It laughed wryly. "So the witches finally have no use for me and have sent a warrior to kill me. Tell me then, maiden, what is the Nobody's purpose?"

"The Nobody?"

"It cannot be a coincidence that he arrived to lock the gates shortly before you arrived with your… weapon."

"What Nobody? Tell me what he was like."

The dragon blasted her with its powerful fire. Kairi dashed to get out of the way, trying to circle closer. Its left leg was coming up but just as she was getting into striking range it moved its feet, dragging the chain across her path and tripping her up. She only barely scrambled out of the way when the dragon spewed another round of fire at her. Kairi stared at the chains in disbelief.

" _Oh my word… even its lightning fire doesn't melt them? Am I even sure the Keyblade is going to work?"_ she thought.

Still, it was worth a shot. She stumbled back onto her feet and started circling her way to its left leg again, this time keeping an eye on its body to watch for movement. It stepped out of the way again and one of its arms swung towards her. Kairi jumped over the chain this time and spun around to block the incoming blow. As the claws came down on her she caught sight of the chains and abruptly changed her mind. She swung Lightwick hard with a two-handed chop that beat against the shackle. The dragon smacked her back down to the floor. Kairi heard her body slap the stone floor before she felt the pain from it. She struggled to turn her head to see what her efforts had done. It wasn't broken but the shackle was cracked. It sizzled and black smoke rose off it. The Keyblade did work after all. From the looks of things, the chains and shackles were enchanted with dark magic. Between the light in her heart and the Keyblade, Kairi would unlock them yet.

"Listen, Mr Dragon," Kairi called up to it. "I didn't come here to hurt you."

"Unlikely!" it barked.

"I mean it! I was lost in this dungeon too."

She circled around it again but it didn't move in the same direction. This time its leg stepped towards her. Kairi leaped towards its leg and stabbed the Keyblade into the chains linked to the shackle. They sizzled and cracked, very near to shattering but then something snaked around her ankle. She looked down. The skinny tip of its tail coiled around her leg and yanked her off her feet.

The world turned as it swung her around, preparing to smash her on the ground. But she recalled that the Keyblade seemed to hurt this creature a lot. She slashed down at her leg and scratched the tail. The dragon cried out and let go, throwing her high up into the air. From there Kairi could look down and the shackle on one of its wings was right below her. She raised the Keyblade above her head and brought it down as she descended. The teeth cracked the shackle and the blow slowed her momentum to the ground.

"You may have landed some lucky blows," the dragon hissed, "but you are no match for me! I have faced starving men on the brink of death with more formidable skills than yours."

Kairi couldn't help a pang of sympathy as she leaped over a chain sliding over the floor and went for the shackle on its right leg. This creature had been a prisoner here, and from the sounds of things forced to fight for the amusement of its mistresses to slay the people they held captive here. It stomped its foot and the force of the impact blew her away. It knocked the wind out of her and she struggled to catch her breath to reply:

"I'm not… trying… to kill you. I want you… to get out of here."

"So you can do what with me? You'll find I'm no meagre pawn."

Kairi was so bemused by that statement that she almost forgot to dodge when the violet flame came down on her again. She circled around it again, trying to get close to those leg shackles. This time it shifted side-on to try to kick her. She didn't have the skill to vault it without getting hurt but she did land some successful blows on the shackles.

This beast wasn't ordinary at all. Kairi found its movements weren't entirely predictable but not random either. It was intelligent enough to react to her advances and manoeuvre to counter them. It was also fast with its own attacks. Kairi barely had time to guzzle a hi-potion before she had to sprint to stay ahead of its fire. She had to concentrate so much to fight it that she couldn't split her mind between fighting with it and reasoning. All she could do was aim for the chains and hope the dragon realised that it felt lighter.

If the dragon realised what she was doing (she was sure it would eventually, it was clearly smart) it didn't let on. She managed to crack the chains on its legs first. The wings were the next easiest to smash since it often leaned on its claws to balance, especially when it breathed fire. However, it wouldn't let her keep the upper hand. Its tail was flexible and it used it to jab, sweep and grab. A cut from the Keyblade was always enough to remind it to keep its tail off her for a little while. With some difficulty she broke the shackles on its arms; there was almost no way for her to land a blow without taking one herself. After that only one remained: the collar.

The collar was different to the other shackles. It was thicker and decorated with gold embellishments in relief that Kairi didn't recognise as magic runes. Her first attempt to crack it ended with her being smacked into a wall. She turned tail immediately to escape its fire blast. It was so hard to get that close to its body. Between six limbs and a neck that was just as mobile as its tail Kairi only got two good swings at it and had to take many potions and hi-potions. The large stock that she had amassed through the dungeon was dwindling fast. So was her energy.

In her desperation to end this soon she made a reckless charge right down the middle of the beast. It grabbed her. However, it didn't throw her or beat her against the ground like she thought it would. It just looked at her with its wicked face and snarled.

"You could not possibly hope to kill me and you seem to not wish to."

"That's what I tried to tell you," Kairi shouted, breathing heavily.

"Then tell me now! What is it that you desire so that I might understand my fate in your hands?"

"I want to be free from this stupid dungeon," Kairi said through clenched teeth. She wriggled hard to free one arm from its grip and summoned Lightwick. One instance of betrayed trust she was sure wouldn't harm her cause at this stage. She stabbed it hard in the fingers. The dragon bellowed in pain and its grip slackened. Kairi lifted herself out of its grasp and jumped off its hand. She held the Keyblade above her as she flew towards the collar, screaming:

"And I'm taking you with me!"

The Keyblade hit the collar hard with a great _smash_ and cracks ran all the way around it. The chain fell away. The dragon shuddered and spread its great wings. It took a piece of the collar still hanging on its neck and pulled it away, staring at the broken bits in awe.

"The cursed yoke is broken," it whispered. "This wretched invention that kept my body too heavy to fly or climb so that I could not tear the chains out of the floor. I could leave this place… I can leave!"

It dropped the piece of the collar and seemed to forget about Kairi completely as it looked up to the far away clerestory windows. It reared onto its legs and it placed its hands on the wall, gripping and scoring its own handholds into the stone. Kairi dismissed the Keyblade and ran to catch up with it, grabbing onto its tail before it got away completely. The spines on its tail were tough and rough enough for her to hold onto without slipping as it crawled up the wall.

At the top of the pit it pulled its head back and head-butted the ceiling, aiding its efforts with blows from its hands and sometimes its wings. Kairi ducked her head and held on as tightly as she could as rubble fell from above, letting the light through. Once it had enough of an opening it continued to climb through. It didn't stop once it was out of the dungeon. When Kairi dared to look up to a sunset sky there were towers stretching above them. With six limbs working smoothly in tandem the dragon climbed the middle tower with incredible speed and ease, like an insect scaling a vertical surface.

When it reached the top of the tower its spread its wings out to their full span and roared victoriously. The setting sun was sinking behind them but in front of them lay Radiant Garden, looking rustic in the sunset colours like a grounded village rather than a sublime capital. A calm, wistful feeling came over her, seeing that place so peaceful in the evening light.

A great gust blew over her and she almost lost her hold. The dragon beat its wings again and took flight. Kairi gasped when she realised that it was going in the direction of the town. She tried to scream at it to stop but it didn't hear her. It swooped over the valley and then arced up along the wall of the bailey. It flew low over the rooves and circled the peaks of the highest ones before gliding away without so much as a wisp of flame. It beat its wings to gain altitude as it flew out to the west, chasing the setting sun.

"Wh-where are you going?" Kairi asked. The dragon still wasn't listening. Then it spat something out of its mouth. It looked like a fireball but it was purplish-black. It suddenly burst and a great patch of darkness bloomed in the air in front of them. Kairi's eyes widened in fear but when she looked down the ground was much too far away for her to let go here. The dragon put on an extra speed burst and dived into its portal.

* * *

Meanwhile, Zexion stumbled out of his own portal into the courtyard between the towers of Villain's Vale, huffing and panting. He'd eventually managed to slip past the women and dash into the corridors. They were sharp enough to follow him but once he was in the corridors it was easy enough to distract them with illusions so that he could find the space to open a portal and escape without the risk of anybody following him in. He put the Lexicon away and wiped the sweat off his brow.

He looked up. The courtyard had a huge hole in it, shining light into the deep, dark pit below. That couldn't be possible. The dragon was well chained so there was no way it could have escaped. However, that concern dropped lower on his priorities when all of a sudden the sweet smell that had sharply permeated the atmosphere dulled immensely. She was gone. He opened another dark portal, deciding to start at the bottom of the dungeon. He had to find out what had happened and try to find some clues as to where she could have gone, if she was still alive.


	9. To The Queen

**To The Queen**

The dragon's portal opened on the other side to a vast blue sky with fluffy, white clouds. Down below was a bird's eye view of a vast countryside with patches of forest between paddocks and a river meandering through them. It was so far down that looking made Kairi dizzy and she turned away, swallowing down the sick feeling in her throat.

"Hey! Where have you taken me?" she shouted up to the dragon.

"You're still present?" the dragon scoffed, glancing at its tail. "Didn't you say you wanted nothing else to do with me? Be gone!"

It twisted and looped wildly in the air, swinging its tail around for extra measure until Kairi could no longer maintain her grip. She slipped off its tail with a handful of spines and fell through the air screaming.

Kairi turned away from the ground and shut her eyes so she wouldn't have to watch her own ugly fate come to meet her. But instead of hitting the ground with a thud she bounced on something soft. Her eyes flew open and she turned over in mid-air to find a cloud had drifted below her. She landed on it again and but the first bounce had taken a heavy toll and the cloud broke on the second landing. Kairi fell through with a squeak but a larger cloud happened to glide below it to catch her.

She sighed and reclined into a seat as soft as fairy floss yet firm enough to hold her weight. Clouds calmly drifted around her like big, white yachts in a still bay. She looked over the edge of her perch, wondering if all of the clouds were this bouncy. Two had already shown to be so perhaps it was worth a test. Kairi put the spines in her pocket carefully, arranging them so they wouldn't spike her through her pocket, and waited for a cloud to float under her before she carefully rolled off and onto the next ledge. It bounced her gently into the air when she hit it. With this, she might be able to bounce all the way down to a place where she could safely get out of the clouds. Grinning, she began a playful journey through the clouds, jumping from here to there on clouds as springy as trampolines. However, when she reached one of the low flying clouds, something behind her _clinked_. She turned around sharply.

Behind her, on the fluffy cloud ledges there were pots, vases and jars. She didn't recall having seen them before but when she looked around there were other clouds around her bearing similar items. Many of the jars were full of preserves but there were pots of flour and sugar, jars of pasta and rice, and bottles or sealed jugs of various drinks – it was a veritable pantry in the clouds.

Kairi turned to the jars behind her curiously and picked one up. The label on it said, in fancy cursive: strawberry jam. She twisted off the lid, going a little red in the cheeks with the effort until it came off with a _pop_. The sweet, strawberry smell wafted it and she breathed it in deeply. It smelled so good she just had to try some. She couldn't find any cutlery but there was also nobody around to see her if she was a little bit naughty by dipping her finger into the jam jar and sucking it straight off her finger. It tasted perfect. It was just the right amount of sweet and the right amount of sticky that jam should always be. Nobody would see her if she took another dip but when she looked at the jar in her hand it had gotten smaller. And it continued to get smaller… or was she getting bigger?

She looked up, glancing at all the clouds around her as they started to look smaller. Her feet got so big that they couldn't stand on the cloud anymore and the jam jar shrank away to nothing in her hand. She slipped off the edge and squealed, throwing her arms out to catch herself but she was already too heavy for the clouds to support her weight. She sent some of the pantry items flying from the clouds and into the forests and paddocks below but by the time her feet hit the ground she was already tall enough that her head was still up among the clouds. She looked around anxiously, unsure of what to do with her new height.

"Oh man, how did this happen?"

"You got into the jam there, didn't you?"

Kairi looked around for the source of that voice. On one of the clouds at just about her eye-level sat a mottled, green frog dressed up in breeches and a casual jacket. It held a fishing rod with a line dangling into the large cloud below it and it blinked at her with its large, round eyes.

"Trying to sneak off with the jam," the frog tutted. "Isn't that a bit naughty of you? For shame."

Kairi blushed all the way to her hairline and looked down shamefacedly. "I didn't think anybody saw…"

"That isn't any reason to eat the jam. The jam can do things to cheeky girls who snack when they think nobody is watching."

"I just wanted a taste, that's all!" Kairi retorted with a huff. "It's not like I could've gotten anybody's permission up here. But since you're here, do you know how I can shrink back to my normal size?"

"When all is said and done, what is a 'normal' size? I'd say you're beautiful just the way you are."

"Ha, ha. I'm being serious here. I need to be back to my normal size and find out how to get back to Ra—my place. Is there anything else around here that I could eat or drink to shrink me?"

"Not with your head up in the clouds like that, they'll keep you high," the frog replied. There was a tug on its line and it pulled with all its might until something jumped out of the clouds. It flapped about wildly as the frog tried to keep control of its rod. "Ho! I've caught a flying bird! This species is very elusive, you know."

Kairi squinted confusedly at it and tried to get a good look at the bird on the end of its line. As far as she could tell, it was a normal grey pigeon but it was difficult to discern through all of its squawking and flailing and the feathers it was throwing everywhere. She frowned in sympathy. With all of the distress it seemed to be in, she thought the frog really should let it go by now.

"But…" the frog continued, lowering its voice to a conspiratorial tone. Kairi leaned forward to listen over the noise the bird was making. "If you wait around for the grey clouds they'll give you what you're after."

"The grey clouds?"

The frog nodded its head upwards and she lifted her head. Above her some large storm clouds had gathered, rumbling with thunder. Lightning flashed within them and then, drop by drop, rain began to fall, increasing intensity until it was absolutely pouring. Kairi put her arms up to shield herself from the cold shower but it ran over her curves and creases, soaking her everywhere. Her vision blurred and her head became dizzy. Then she had the sensation that she was falling again. She was falling so fast all of the scenery around her was a blur yet her feet still felt like they were on solid ground. Suddenly the storm clouds dropped a dollop of water so large that it actually hurt to get hit by it. Kairi's woozy head couldn't take it and she passed out, collapsing on the floor.

* * *

When she opened her eyes again it was warm and humid and the ground smelled of damp earth and compost. She sat up, looking around at her shady surroundings. Sunlight poured from up above onto her patch of ground but when she looked up she couldn't see it or a sky, just a few patches of bright light in the darkness above. She squinted at it. How did the sky get so dark like that? Was there something covering it?

Kairi got up and stepped out of the sunlight. The column of light obstructed her view of everything else around her. Once she was in the shade and her eyes had adjusted to the changed light she gasped in disbelief. Right in front of her was the most enormous mushroom she had ever seen. It was as big as a house and beside it were many more mushrooms that were even bigger. She turned this way and that. To her left was a really long log but it might have actually been a twig because on her other side the tip of a decaying leaf loomed over her.

"Oh no," she muttered in dismay. "I think I shrunk way too much."

She had to get out of here. Maybe she could try to find some of the items she'd knocked out of the sky; they were bound to be lying around the forest somewhere. She started to make her way around the mushroom cluster but eventually found that being so small she wouldn't really get far. The large cliff that stayed beside her for most of her journey was probably a tree and as she tried to venture away from it she had to clamber over giant leaves. The rills and clumps in the soil were like hills and by the time she made it to the next tree she was already panting and sweating. Great. All this effort and she managed to cover two trees' worth of ground in a forest.

Despite how dismal the situation seemed she swallowed back dismay and lifted her head up. She just had to find something that would enlarge her or make it to someone that could help. Taking a shaky breath, she ventured out into the forest again. As she was running around some leaves, voices singing in unison met her ears and she paused to listen. It sounded like they were coming nearer. With a spark of hope, Kairi made her way towards them and as they got closer to each other she began to hear the lyrics:

" _The ants are marching one-by-one  
To the buns! To the buns!  
When we're marching one-by-one  
We have lots of fun."_

"Ants?" Kairi wondered, creeping towards the singing a bit more warily. They sang their song repetitively, not once changing the words. Then, as she walked around a lumpy fungus growing over a root she came face to face with an enormous ant as tall as her. She screamed and it screamed in response. And just for that, she screamed again. "A talking ant?!"

The ant just screamed, throwing its head around in shock and confusion. Behind it the voices had stopped singing but there was a long line of confused chatter coming from around the fungus. Kairi shuffled around the ant in front of her. A long line of giant ants stretched into the forest but those near the end of the line were obscured in the leaf litter. They were all bobbing their heads bemusedly and waving their antennae about as if they might sense the situation just by doing that.

"Why have we stopped?"

"All that shouting sounds dreadful."

"Have we found the buns?"

The screaming died down as the ant lost its breath. It regarded her with wide eyes, taking deep breaths and then started to examine her all over with its feelers. Despite her surprise, Kairi couldn't help but let out peals of laughter at the gentle sensation tickling everywhere the feelers ran.

"What is this?" the ant said indignantly. "You're not buns."

"N-no, I'm not b-buns," Kairi stuttered through her giggles, trying to push the feelers away. "I'm a person."

"Person?" The ant stopped feeling and looked back at the queue behind it. "What's 'person'?" it called back.

"Person?"

"What are persons?"

"Are persons a kind of bun?"

Kairi snickered lightly behind her knuckles. Even if they were huge relative to her now, they were somewhat adorable now that it was apparent that they were probably harmless. Then the tone in the queue changed. Their voices went from their loud curious babble to a sudden hush and whispers raced up and down the line. Kairi craned her neck to see what was happening.

A large ant, twice the size of the others and with a head three times as large, marched up the side of the line. It snapped its mandibles as it spoke: "What's going on here? Why did our march stop?"

"We ran into a person," the first ant in the queue replied as the soldier ant approached. "I don't think the person is buns, though. It says it isn't buns."

"That's exactly what buns would say, wouldn't they?" the soldier said, peering at Kairi suspiciously.

"What are you talking about?" Kairi asked, folding her arms. "I told these guys that I'm just a person—a human being."

It lashed out with mandibles gnashing. Kairi leaped out of the way and summoned the Keyblade, blocking and batting away the last couple of strikes. The soldier ant took a few steps back, clicking its jaws. "I don't think it's buns."

"I said so, didn't I?" Kairi pouted. "But I'm not at my correct size right now. I need to get bigger somehow. Do you know how I can do that?"

"Does that means it's not food?" the first ant in line asked, completely ignoring Kairi's question.

"Not necessarily," answered the soldier ant. "Fruit isn't buns and its food. So is meat."

Kairi paled but then the first in line said: "But it's not either of those things. It's a person. Is a person food?"

"Hmm…" the soldier murmured, rubbing its chin with one of its front feet. "If you don't know and I don't know, then we must confer to a higher authority."

"To The Queen?" the second in line inquired eagerly.

"Are we going to The Queen?" asked another.

"Who's going to The Queen?"

"Yes, take the person and report to The Queen," the soldier decided.

"I guess that's not too bad," Kairi said with a bit of a sour tone over being ignored earlier. She dismissed the Keyblade. "Would your queen know how to get me back to norm—aahh!"

The first ant in line grabbed her tightly around the waist with its mandibles, pinning her arms to her side. She struggled but it had a vice grip. It lifted her off her feet and carried her off, turning around and following the line back the way they came at the direction of the soldier. The second and third ant followed but the soldier stopped the fourth.

"No, that's enough workers. The rest of you need to get back to finding food. A scout saw those buns fall out of the sky earlier so they can't be far."

"What are you doing!?" Kairi screamed, kicking her legs out but even if she managed to land a hit on its face it barely flinched. "Put me down! Stop this! I would have gone with you willingly anyway, so let me go!"

Her cries fell on deaf ears as the queue beside them began to move again. After getting bunched up and backed up by the delay they struggled to get in a neat order again but once they did they were marching efficiently again. The new lead ants started up a new marching song that travelled down the line until they were all singing in perfect unison again:

" _The ants are marching two-by-two  
To the food! To the food!  
When we're marching two-by-two  
We have lots to do."_

In the meantime, Kairi screamed in vain as the trio escorting her carried her away to an unknown destination.

* * *

From such a small height the forest all looked the same to Kairi. She had no idea how the ants managed to find their way around. They'd passed the end of the line some time ago and the voices of the marchers had faded off into the distance already. With the noise gone the forest descended into awkward silence that was quickly broken by the ants starting up a discussion about their new marching song now that they were a separate delegation. After all, other ants needed to know what they were all about. Kairi kept trying to turn herself to face forwards but the most she could do was look over her shoulder briefly. The ants climbed over a root, marching into a sunnier part of the forest. Kairi looked behind her again.

A beam of sunlight shone down like a spotlight onto a large, bare hill in the middle of the forest floor, although if Kairi was being realistic it wasn't a hill, rather a mound. A mound of dirt. The ants picked up their pace as they approached it and when they started to climb the second in line announced the count to begin their new song:

" _The ants are marching three-by-three  
To the queen! To the queen!  
When we're marching three-by-three  
We all want her to see."_

At the top of the anthill there was a large hole that dropped down vertically. Kairi shivered in fear as the ant holding her came over the crest and marched straight down into the darkness but the dramatic change in angle didn't faze them. They kept walking and singing through a maze of tunnels. Other ants passed them, chanting their own verses and occasionally walking over them or stopping to run their feelers over what they were bringing. Kairi tried to kick them away, finding that the tickling felt creepy now rather than fun.

She couldn't make heads of tails of the colony's layout but eventually they entered a tunnel that was a bit wider and much longer than all of the rest. Worker ants came and went busily and every now and then a soldier patrolled the path. Kairi was sure the queen lived down this way – with this much service and security it was bound to be somewhere important.

The ants stopped in front of a thick curtain hanging over the tunnel's exit. Kairi looked it over confusedly, thinking it odd that ants would have the means (or the need) to make a curtain. Light shone from under it, indicating the chamber beyond was well lit. The second in line came up beside the first and sang to the curtain:

" _We ants came marching three-by-three  
With a gift for the queen.  
We came marching three-by-three  
So that she could see."_

The curtain was pulled aside and the ants filed in, the first in line with Kairi keeping his position, followed by the other two. They repeated this new refrain as they entered the large chamber. Kairi could almost ignore how annoying their singing was as her jaw dropped in awe of the grand throne room. There were no windows – in light of the fact that they were underground – yet the walls and ceiling were ribbed with elegant arches lit by sconces and hanging lamps fashioned out of blown glass. She raised a confused eyebrow at the opulent decoration, the marble floors and plush, red carpet that the ants marched down. This level of construction seemed beyond mere insects.

At the end of the carpet was the most enormous ant of all, easily five times the size of the worker ants, lounging on a strange piece of furniture like a cross between a throne and a chaise longue. She wore a very thick and frilly, white ruff along with a royal red cape draped over her back and a matching sash that crossed her thorax diagonally. The ribbon ends met at a large, golden medallion inlaid with several precious stones that was currently being polished by a worker ant. And of course, to augment her status, on her head sat a gleaming gold and red velvet crown.

The ants dropped Kairi off in front of her. She turned around massaging the sore spots on her arms where she had been pinched, glad to be able to face forward to look at something and relieve that crick in her neck. The queen leaned forwards slightly, feelers twitching in interest as she stared down at Kairi with unblinking bug eyes.

"What is this?" she said, in a normal tone for her but her large size produced a large voice that boomed throughout the large chamber. "Why did you bring it here? Is it food?"

Kairi's face fell and she groaned quietly. Their queen surely couldn't be just as stupid as the rest of them. Otherwise this was looking to be quite the frustrating exchange.

"It's a person," the first in line answered.

"We brought it to show you," the second in line added.

"We're not sure if it's food," the last in line said. "We were hoping you would know."

The queen pulled her chin back as if in offense. "Stupid fools! Do I look like I know what a person is?"

" _As if they'd know,"_ Kairi thought exasperatedly.

"We humbly apologise!" squeaked the first in line.

"We don't mean to presume anything about our Queen!" the second in line yelped.

"We thought that our wise Queen would be able to figure it out," the third in line explained, "for, alas, we could not."

The queen hummed thoughtfully and lowered her head even more so that her face came right up to Kairi's. Kairi leaned back nervously but tried not to take a step lest the queen be offended by that somehow. The queen's antennae stroked and prodded her, much less ticklish than the worker ants had been but also much more methodically, like she was actually testing something.

"Hmmm… how peculiar, this 'person'. How did you know it was a person?"

"I told them," Kairi replied before the ants could begin their long-winded chain of answers.

"It told us—wait! It spoke out of turn!" the first in line exclaimed, feelers jerking in anxious spasms.

"You were supposed to tell The Queen," the second in line said in a panicky voice.

"Now I can't! What was I supposed to tell The Queen?"

"I've forgotten!"

"But if you both don't know what you're supposed to tell The Queen how am I supposed to know what I'm supposed to tell The Queen?" the third ant wondered.

"Silence! Stupid fools!" the queen ant shouted, making the walls tremble with her voice. "Technically, the person was in front of all of you, so it will speak first in turn."

"Oooh!" the first in line sighed with relief.

"Yes, that makes sense," the second in line nodded.

"The Queen always knows," the third in line added.

The queen set her antennae to the side and looked Kairi over with her eyes again before leaning back to relax on her throne. "Well then if the person can speak, then the person should tell us: what is a person?"

"Um…" Kairi muttered, pursing her lips nervously. How was she going to answer that? Some years ago she might have just said that a person was a human and that was all there was to it but then she'd met Mickey, Donald, Goofy and of course Monica and Max. They weren't human but were they people? And the Nobodies were human but they weren't people. She stammered unsurely for a minute until the queen loudly demanded:

"Speak, person!"

"Ah! W-well, a person is a… person…" Kairi stuttered, still drawing blanks. Why did Zexion ever think she was smart? What would he do? He'd probably just know the answer, she thought, he always seemed to know the answers right off the bat.

"Yes, a person is a person," the queen snapped. "Like an ant is an ant, and buns are buns, and food is food. Stupid fool! What is a person, other than a person?"

Kairi grimaced. She didn't have to be so rude. But Kairi still didn't have an answer for her and wracked her brain so hard her temples began to sweat from the effort. Humans were people, Monnie and Max were people but not humans, Nobodies were human but not people – one of those things wasn't like the others and the question was how.

The answer suddenly came to her like a brilliant flash of light. Her eyes widened in realisation and she stood up straighter, holding her finger up. "I know! A person is a creature that has a heart."

The queen sat up in surprise. "A heart? What is a heart?"

"Ah… well…" Kairi sucked in a breath. That would be much harder to answer; she probably couldn't just guess it by induction. If only she had Zexion here. "A heart is what gives someone feeling and sensitivity and a lot of other things."

And even if she was wrong, it's not like the queen would know.

The queen hummed thoughtfully again, leaning forwards in interest. "A heart, hm? What other things have hearts?"

"Lots of things. I probably couldn't name them all."

"Then… does food have hearts?"

Kairi's stomach dropped. "Um, I don't… know?"

After all, worlds had hearts too, didn't they? But they weren't people, right? This was too confusing. Kairi held her head in dismay, trying to think her way out of this. If Zexion was here he would just know and he'd probably be smart enough to steer the conversation away from this uncomfortable tail of it.

"You don't know," the queen drawled. "That's a shame because that doesn't answer my concern. Are persons food?"

"Nope! Absolutely not!" Kairi squeaked, grinning and trying to sound congenial despite her panic. "People are definitely not food."

"Are you sure? It's strange that you're so sure now when you weren't so sure before. What are persons made of? Is it food? You feel soft but firm and you smell like flesh, just like meat. Are you made of meat?"

"I am not made of meat at all!" Kairi said, crossing her arms in front of her defensively. "I'm definitely not food!"

"That's something that food would say!" the first in line piped up.

"If food could talk it would say it wasn't food," said the second in line.

"Food wouldn't want to be eaten," the third in line added.

"Stop saying that!" Kairi snapped at them. "That doesn't prove anything!"

"Then what would prove anything?" the queen interjected. "Tell us exactly what you're made of."

Kairi turned back to the queen, throwing her hands up again while she tried to quickly think of an explanation that would appease these stupid ants. "Er, well, since I'm a girl, I'm made of sugar and spice and everything nice." A split second after saying that she realised that was the wrong answer here.

"Mmm," the queen said, clicking her mandibles hungrily. "I like sugar and spice."

"Buns are made of sugar and spice," the first in line said.

"And buns are food," said the second in line.

"Then that means that girls are food!" the third in line concluded proudly. "But what are girls?"

"Stupid fools! Girls are persons, clearly, since it said it was a person," the queen said, finally standing up to take lumbering steps towards Kairi. This time Kairi did back away. "Bring it closer to me, I want that sugar and spice."

"N-n-no, I-I'm not really full of sugar," Kairi said, turning side on to look at both the workers and the queen. They both closed in on her with their mandibles open to snap. "I'm sorry but you can't eat me!"

In a flash she summoned her Keyblade, Lightwick, and struck out to parry the advancing vices. She hit the closest worker ant first, snapping its head back quick enough for whiplash. Then she turned and thumped the queen under the chin, deflecting her gaping jaws.

"OW!" the queen howled. All other ants in the room suddenly stopped whatever they were doing, antennae standing straight and quivering in alarm.

"The Queen is hurt!"

"The person struck The Queen!"

"Defend The Queen!"

Their feelers all swivelled and then lowered, pointing straight at Kairi like dowsing rods. She had to think fast as they surged towards her and the three closest were already within snapping range. Thinking fast, she turned to the ant she'd already hit and rolled towards it, narrowly slipping under the mandibles of the other two. She stood up right in front of it and gave it an axe-chop to the top of the head before it had time to react. It fell to the floor, legs spread, stunned. Kairi jumped over its body and sighed with relief now that she was in open space and not boxed in between three ants and the queen.

The other two ants turned around and kept scuttling towards her mindlessly. The medallion polisher stalked towards her too, bolstering the group. Kairi went for the attack, smashing the Keyblade against the side of the second in line's head and then taking a step back to make a powerful lunge that stabbed it between the eyes. It went down with just those two big hits, just like the first. The third in line advanced in a zombie-like march, paying no heed to how its comrade had just fallen. Its weak jaws barely fazed Kairi when she parried them with her first strike but it left itself wide open for her to quickly make a second one. She made a side swipe at the medallion polisher when it got too close and then bashed the third in line with a two-handed swing. It went down and she took care of the medallion polisher the same way.

Just as she took a deep breath a shadow loomed over her and she looked up. The queen squatted down to take a chomp at her. Kairi jumped out of the way. Despite the queen's jaws being so small relative to her size, Kairi didn't want to reckon with a creature that size, not after fighting the dragon. She was still low on supplies after that fight. Even if she could defeat the queen there was a whole colony to contend with. As far as she was concerned, there was no other choice at this stage. She had to make a run for it.

Kairi turned and followed the red carpet back to the curtain. Despite having six legs the ants weren't that fast and the workers that were convening from around the room struggled to keep up but then a bigger problem presented itself. A soldier ant marched towards her right down the red carpet, one of two that guarded the entrance. The other was probably right behind it. Banking on being able to outrun it, Kairi veered to the side to simply run around it. Its reflexes were faster than she expected. Its head swivelled around and when it snapped Kairi only had time to try to parry.

The soldier's larger mandibles bit so powerfully that they crossed tightly and the force of it knocked Kairi off her feet and sent her flying back a fair way. She landed on her backside and got up quickly. Her heart had skipped a beat just then – that attack could have cut her in half. The ants merely changed direction to surge towards wherever her current location was. Only the soldier had paused while it tried to uncross its jaws. The other marched towards her, directly in front of her again while the workers swarmed around her. It would do no good if she got surrounded again but the quickest way to the door was straight through that second soldier. So Kairi dared to do just that.

She bravely ran straight up to it, anticipating its guillotine attack and ready to block it. The strain of standing her ground against it could be felt in her very bones but her determination to stand sturdy had some of the force recoiling back to the soldier, forcing its head back. Being as large as it was, Kairi could roll under its head, narrowly avoiding a second attempt at crushing her and crawled away under its body. On the other side she jumped to her feet and had a clear path to the exit.

She sprinted straight towards it, so intensely focused on it that the queen's bellowing for the ants to tear her apart so that she could be eaten piece by piece sounded muted as if she had cotton in her ears. Occasionally she glanced over her shoulder. The army of ants wasn't far behind and gaining on her even though they'd been so slow before. When she got to the curtain she threw it back and ducked behind it.

After being in such a bright throne room entering the tunnel was like hurtling into oblivion. Kairi kept running in spite of it, hoping she didn't run into anymore ants. But she ran into something more surprising: another curtain. It billowed at the sudden impact and snagged her. She struggled to unwrap herself and toss it to the side, wondering where that had come from since there hadn't been a second curtain on the way in. Behind her the ants were chanting another song, this one with more of a rhythm and orchestrated by the beat of their marching feet. When she looked back this time she could barely see them in the gloom, writhing and crawling over the walls and ceiling but they were bottlenecked since it was only big enough for four ants at once.

" _The ants are marching four-by-four  
Off to war! Off to war!  
When we're marching four-by-four  
We're doing so much more." _

Kairi shivered but as she ran she tripped on another piece of cloth that tangled around her feet. She crawled along in desperation to get away while kicking it off. She scrambled back to a proper run once she was free but this time kept her arms out in front of her to feel for any more obstacles.

Her hands touched another curtain in her way that she threw aside and then another. There were suddenly so many of them, like she'd walked into a maze of curtains. The more she ran around and through the drapes a warm light in front of her grew larger and larger, revealing the curtains to be a tasteful peach colour. To Kairi what was more pertinent was that it could be indicative of a way out. Yet, as if to spite her, the walls and ceiling were also closing in the closer she got to the light. She had to walk her hands along the ceiling as she crouched to avoid hitting her head but it eventually got so narrow that she had to crawl.

Finally she reached the last curtain with the light shining through all of it like a screen of hope. But there was no seam or gap in it for Kairi to pull it apart. The drumming vibrating through the walls let her know the ants weren't far behind so she just lifted the curtain up over her head and crawled out into a rather pleasant summer's day.

She was so confused by the sudden change to blue skies above her and grass (normal-sized grass) under her hands and knees that she didn't really register the scandalised gasps of horror behind her. She stood up shakily and stumbled, looking at the scene in front of her and trying to grasp what had happened.

A large lawn stretched towards a stately manor several metres away. On the patio before its grand staircase were numerous pairs – each a man and a woman – making the steps through a formal dance while around it were some small tables all laid out with tea and snacks for the guests who weren't currently engaged on the dancefloor. Kairi turned around. The table behind her had a peach-coloured tablecloth like all of the others around the lawn but the table itself was a mess, covered in spilled tea and dropped biscuits. Two women and two small girls dressed impeccably in fine, colourful dresses with frills and layers sat around the little round table. Three of them gaped at Kairi, frozen in shock but one of the little girls, while surprised, wasn't nearly so horror-struck. She hadn't even dropped her tea. The little blonde girl in a blue dress with a layered skirt that fanned out like the petals of a carnation simply put her teacup down and slid off her seat as if standing up would help her scrutinise Kairi better.

"My goodness," she said, looking Kairi up and down. "How on earth did you end up under the table?"

"Good gracious!" exclaimed the portly woman in a pink dress with its matching gloves and bonnet set. It was as if breaking the silence had suddenly reanimated her. She picked up her fan from her lap to rapidly cool her face for fear she was about to faint. "Could you ever have imagined such a thing?!"

"Outrageous!" said the slim brunette woman who was sitting beside the blonde girl, looking frumpy in her dark purple dress with sleeves puffed to the elbows. She put a hand over her collar and tucked her skirt between her legs. Kairi couldn't work out why until she added: "How long have you been under there? Are you some kind of _lesbian_ , you pervert?!"

Kairi reeled back at the stinging tone of the accusation.

"I can see all of her legs," the other girl gasped. She turned to the woman in pink beside her. "Do all lesbians dress themselves so indecently?"

Kairi's jaw dropped at the blatant insult. She was about to retort but in her periphery saw the blonde girl take a step towards her.

"Alice! Don't go anywhere near her!" the woman in purple snapped, pulling the girl back by the bow on the back of her dress. "Lest that damned girl corrupt you." She glared sharply at Kairi. "I suggest you leave immediately."

"Aren't you even going to ask why she came?" Alice asked.

"Who would be so concerned about that?"

Kairi glanced in bewilderment at the four faces in front of her and then down at the edge of the tablecloth as if Alice's question had only just reminded her how she got here. The cloth brushed the ground and crawling up from the hem were a few little black dots winding haphazardly over the fabric.

"I just came…" Kairi began, startling the women and girls into looking directly at her again, "because I thought I ought to let you know that you're about to have ants."

With that she turned on her heel, dizziness overtaking her with the shock and bewilderment as her mind resumed thinking it over. She was in the ant tunnel and then suddenly she was at a garden party and judging by the size of everything she was back to her normal height. At least she thought she was normal now. Alice seemed appropriately scaled for a seven or eight-year-old girl and ants were back to being tiny. But Kairi had no idea what had just happened. She staggered in the direction of the manor, feeling sick and ignoring all of the sounds around her as she parted the dancefloor on her way to the stairs, even the call of a little girl trying to catch up with her.

* * *

 **A/N: this chapter's a bit longer than usual, also a bit later than it's supposed to be. Sorry bout that. Other things just got on top of me.**


	10. Alice from Wonderland

**Alice from Wonderland**

The back doors of the manor were open and led to a ballroom that, compared to the grandeur of Disney's royal ballroom, was quite small. For now it was being utilised by the service staff. Plain tables in white cloth were set up in rows to serve as a station for bringing back dishes and taking drinks and cakes out to the garden party. The servers all paused in their busying and gawked as the strangely dressed (and scantily clad, by their standards) girl walked briskly through their operation to a pair of large, wooden doors under the staircase landing at the back of the room. She grasped the handle and jiggled it but they were locked tight, she couldn't even shake them. Sighing deeply, Kairi turned around to find another way out…

… And came face-to-face with Alice.

"Goodness, I thought I might never be able to catch up," Alice said with relief.

"You didn't have to come after me," Kairi said, frowning in confusion. "Didn't your mom say she didn't want you hanging out with a 'lesbian'?"

"Oh, Aida isn't my mother, she's our governess."

"Governess?"

"She takes care of me and Lorna while our parents are busy, but Lorna went to dance with one of the boys so she hasn't met you yet. Would you like to meet my sister?"

Kairi tilted her head to the side, studying Alice's face. Her expression was so open and friendly despite her governess' harsh misgivings and her tone was merely inquisitive. Her appearance was also vaguely familiar but Kairi couldn't for the life of her remember where or how she would have met Alice before.

"Alice!"

Kairi and Alice both turned to the doors in alarm at the shout echoing across the ballroom. The governess, Aida, had her skirts gathered in her hands as she hurried through the doors with a sharp and livid expression on her face. The skirts hung all the way down to her feet and were fitted for a narrow appearance, especially around the hips, giving her such a small range of movement that she hadn't been able to catch up until now.

"Oh dear," Alice muttered glumly. "I think we're about to be in an awful lot of trouble."

"I haven't got time to be in an awful lot of trouble," Kairi said, looking left and right. There was a small door under each of the staircases and the one to her right stood ajar just enough that Kairi could see a narrow hallway through it. She turned and walked towards it, keeping her brisk pace.

Alice looked at Kairi in puzzlement as she left abruptly and then at Aida, who was already halfway across the room. She gulped, and then ran towards the door Kairi had left through. "Wait!"

She couldn't believe Kairi could walk so fast; she had already made it a third of the way down the long hall lined with doors to private rooms and a collection of paintings of green, open landscape on the walls in between. Yet Alice managed to catch up and loop her fingers through the straps of Kairi's odd style of satchel.

"You shouldn't follow me, you're only going to get into more trouble," Kairi told her pointedly.

"I was already in trouble anyhow," Alice responded, giving a stubborn pout that Kairi only gave a cursory glance to. "But you're being quite short. Are you angry with me? Is it because we said you're a lesbian?"

"Will you stop saying that!" Kairi snapped, stopping and turning around to make an abrupt motion with both hands. The motion pulled Alice's fingers out of the backpack straps.

"What?" Alice asked, flinching in shock.

Kairi sighed. Alice's expression was wide-eyed and earnest, like she really didn't understand but was eager to hear the answer. "That I'm a lesbian… well, it's not so much that, but stop saying it in that way."

"What way?"

"Like it's freakish. Even if I was I'd still be a person and there's nothing wrong with being a little different from everyone else."

Alice went quiet as she took that in, looking down at the floor thoughtfully. Kairi sighed gently. It was probably useless to change Alice's mind. That's what she thought, so when Alice looked back up at her with a smile she was quite taken aback.

"You're right. It would be awfully dull if everyone was the same or even if everyone was the same way all the time."

"ALICE!"

The girls gasped and looked down the hall. Aida was approaching them looking like a storm cloud with her face going purple with fury so palpable that it made her seem like she was taking up all the space in the corridor.

"Yikes! How do we get out of here?" Kairi squeaked.

"We'll go upstairs," Alice said, pointing to the stairwell at the end of the hall. Kairi looked that way and then ran straight towards it, certain that Alice was keeping up as best she could. At the end of the corridor was a three-way junction with a stairwell jutted up against it as a fourth option. In an odd fashion, the stairs had a set of narrow double doors in front of them that were propped wide open. Alice hurried straight up the stairs but Kairi stopped for a moment to pull the doors away from the wall. One of the handles had a lock and a key poking out of it. She took it and closed the stairwell doors, watching as Aida tried to speed up to get to them. Once they were shut, Kairi locked the door behind them and pocketed the key.

Aida pounded on the door, yelling at them to let her in. Kairi backed away. She turned around to go up the stairs and to her surprise Alice hadn't gone all the way to the second floor. She was waiting on the landing by a tall window with curtains drawn wide open.

"Wow, wasn't that clever?" she remarked, giggling a bit. "I hadn't thought to lock the doors. Oh, Aida is going to be mighty cross with us."

"You don't seem that worried about it," Kairi said, putting her hands on her hips and raising an eyebrow. "She's going to find you eventually – you have to go home at some point, after all – and you're going to get punished. Why have you been trying to escape with me?"

"I just thought it would be a bit fun," Alice replied, looking away in remorse now that she was reminded of the consequences, "to meet someone different and not quite so stiff. You know, once I had this thought about what it would be like if everything was backwards."

"Backwards?"

"You know, opposite. Like, if things that couldn't talk talked and instead of staying one size you could be however big or small you wanted to be and everything was different to the way it ought to be. I thought: 'a world like that would be wonderful.' But the thing is, it actually came true one day."

"Really?" Kairi said, caught between disbelief and intrigue. She leaned forwards and put her hands on her knees so that she was more eye level with Alice.

"Yes! You see, it all started when I saw something very strange. There was a white rabbit wearing clothes and saying that he was very late and I fell down his rabbit hole. Gosh, it was really amazing! I met these peculiar little animals that could speak and flowers that could sing and I got to go to a lovely unbirthday party. Oh, but there were some things that weren't so wonderful, like that pesky, riddling cat and that horrid Queen of Hearts and I just couldn't get the hang of how big or small I was supposed to be—"

"Wait, the Queen of Hearts?" Kairi interrupted. She'd heard of a Queen of Hearts – albeit only second hand through Sora – and that she was a cranky woman who ruled in a place called Wonderland. But how could Alice have known her?

"Mmhmm," Alice nodded. "She was absolutely ghastly! She falsely accused me of trying to steal her heart and put me on trial. I felt just dreadful about the whole thing but thankfully these kind helpers came along and found some evidence to clear my name, however, that horrid Queen of Hearts got angry about that too and ordered her guards to kill them!"

"Whoa! That's awful!" Kairi interjected. And awfully familiar. She was sure she'd heard another side of this story but she decided to ask just to make sure: "What happened after that?"

"Unfortunately, I don't know. But I know that they must have gotten through alright because I saw them again in this big castle called Hollow Bastion."

"Hollow Bastion?!" Kairi exclaimed as her eyes widened almost comically. She stood up and leaned back in shock. "You were at Hollow Bastion?! When? How did you get there?"

"Oh, it wasn't long ago. I didn't have anything with me to tell the time, that's how unprepared I was, so I can't be sure but I swear it happened just last year. But Aida and Lorna and my parents all say that no such thing ever happened and I was being ridiculous. See, I was kidnapped by this witch—although at the time I didn't know I was being kidnapped. The Queen of Hearts trapped me in this big gilded cage with a blanket over it and while I was in there this portal appeared and the witch – Maleficent – spoke through it, saying that she was going to rescue me. So I went through the portal, silly girl that I am, and as soon as I met her she quickly put me under a spell. I don't remember anything else after that until I was _actually_ rescued by Sora, Donald, Goofy and this great, hairy beast."

"Sora, Donald and Goofy? Maleficent? No way… Alice, are you a Princess of Heart?"

"You know about that too? Thank goodness. I was beginning to think I must have dreamed it all up. Even the white rabbit and that funny lotus forest. Am I sure I'm not dreaming now, though? Maybe I've fallen asleep on Aida's lap at the garden party."

"Nuh-uh, this is not a dream," Kairi told her firmly, shaking her head. "You're _that_ Alice – the one from Sora's journal. You're definitely a Princess of Heart. And if you're here in your own world then this must be Wonderland. That explains all of… that." Kairi waved vaguely at the window.

"That?" Alice echoed, cocking her head to the side curiously and then looking out the window, thinking Kairi was actually gesturing at something.

"All this weird stuff happened to me ever since that dragon—" She gasped. "The dragon!"

"What about a dragon?" Alice asked absentmindedly, focussed on something out the window.

"A dragon brought me here through a portal. Maybe if I find it again I can make it take me back. Ever since it brought me here things have been weird. I was able to bounce on clouds and ate a jam that made me huge, then I shrank so much I could fit in an ant tunnel and while I was trying to escape I wound up here."

"That's very curious."

"I know, right?"

"Look at that," Alice said, pointing up. Kairi blinked but followed Alice's finger. The sky outside had gone from being mostly clear to being blotted out by a thin veil of cloud and little, white snowflakes fluttered down from them. "Snow in August! Now that's quite impossible."

"I'll take your word for it," Kairi muttered, gulping apprehensively even though as far as she knew this freak weather was completely innocuous. Deep down she had a sinking feeling that it might be worse than it appeared.

The lock on the doors jiggled, startling them. They both turned around and looked down the stairs at the handle. It bobbed up and down as someone tested it from the other side.

"Uh oh. Aida must have gone to get someone with a key," Alice moaned.

"Upstairs! Now!" Kairi ordered, running up ahead of Alice and they got to the next floor just as they heard the lock click.

" _ALICE_!" Aida screeched.

Alice and Kairi shut the doors on the second floor. Kairi took out the key to lock it again but Alice was quick to point out that it wouldn't hold them if they had a key too. Kairi nodded and looked around for anything they could use as a barricade. On either side of the doors was a wooden table, each bearing a large vase full of flowers that were past fresh, evident by their wilted petals with browned edges. Kairi pulled one of them across, grunting with the strain of hefting the heavy weight of the rich, solid wood and the vase. Once it was securely blocking the doors the girls stepped back. They looked at each other.

"We need to find another way out of here," Kairi stated. Alice nodded in agreement.

They had two ways to choose from – a short corridor to their right or the longer one right behind them. The short one didn't look promising so they turned and ran down the longer corridor, just as the doorknob began to rattle like the snapping jaws of a hound on their heels. It was more spacious on the second floor and the rooms were bigger but with less regard for privacy as most of the doors were wide open. Kairi gave each room a cursory glance as they passed, hoping for some tiny chance that the rooms could provide a means of escape. They were predictably dead ends but in one room a bit of movement caught her eye. She skidded past it, rumpling the corridor's long rug, and turned back to poke her head into the room and take a closer look.

The room she'd just passed was a sewing room. It had a treadle sewing machine in front of a nice big window with the snow falling outside but on a nice, sunny day it would be a wonderful place to sit. Beside the treadle was a large basket with rolled up fabric. Aside from the machine, there were two cushy armchairs, each with a basket of wool and a selection of crochet hooks and knitting needles. The armchairs faced each other but were angled towards the left wall, which had a small fireplace and a large mirror hanging over the mantelpiece. But the room was empty. Kairi peered into every corner trying to discern what might have caught her eye but there was nothing, not even a fire in the fireplace.

"Over here!" Alice called to her from further down the hall. Kairi pulled her head out of the room to look at Alice, who was standing in a more open part of the corridor. Light streamed onto the floor there from floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows that led to a balcony and instead of a room the corridor became a small hall for two sets of wooden double doors. "We could go through these doors. The antechamber on the other side goes through to the entrance hall."

Kairi nodded but gave the room another once-over. Maybe she had just been seeing things. She stared at the mirror and tilted her head to the side, considering its angle and size. She could see herself standing in the doorway, so perhaps the movement she'd seen had just been her own as she ran past the room. However, just as she began to relax with that reasonable explanation another figure appeared in the mirror. A large, black face with red eyes and tentacles. Kairi's heart seized. It was the dragon. And it was right behind her.

She whirled around, grabbing the doorframe to stabilise herself. The corridor behind her was as empty as it had been before. Confused, Kairi looked to the mirror again. It reflected her as she was but the face of the dragon was still behind her, looking in and gazing at the mirror just as she was. Then it turned away walked on by. Kairi watched its whole body passing the doorway in the mirror, reaching back to try to feel for it. According to the mirror it was less than an arm's length away and she was stroking it but behind her she felt nothing but air.

Another warm hand grabbed hers and she gasped. She looked down. It was just Alice getting her attention by shaking her hand. Kairi chuckled embarrassedly. She probably looked foolish standing there and waving her arm at nothing but Alice didn't give any indication that she had noticed.

"The doors are locked," Alice reported disappointedly. "Silly of me to think of it. If they had been unlocked Aida would have just come this way; there would be no point in bothering to get someone with a key."

Kairi stared at her, unsure what to do now. She gave the mirror another look and saw the dragon's tail flick as the last of it disappeared. "In here."

Kairi took hold of Alice's hand and dragged her into the sewing room, then shut the door behind them. Letting go of Alice, she went right over to the mantelpiece, looking over it and the mirror. Alice joined her at her side.

"Hey, don't you think there's something weird about this mirror?" Kairi asked.

"It is rather odd," Alice agreed. "It doesn't show anything right."

"How so?"

Alice pointed to a knick-knack beside the clock on the mantelpiece of a band musician wearing a red jacket and blue trousers. "Even though he's playing a trumpet, his reflection is playing a flute."

Kairi examined the band man and her eyebrows jumped when she realised Alice was right. In his hands he had a little golden trumpet but in his reflection, while they could only see the back of him, he had his arms out to the side supporting a silver flute. There were blatant inconsistencies like that all over the mirror. A decorative candle that was whole on their side was melted and burnt down to the base. The armchairs, which were a neutral cream colour and upholstered all over, were a rich red colour with the wooden legs and arms visible. Alice and Kairi exchanged looks.

"It isn't right at all, is it?" Alice said.

Kairi shook her head. "Something's up."

She climbed up onto the mantelpiece, pushing several of the knick-knacks and decorations aside. It was a tight squeeze to get between them and the mantelpiece wasn't that big itself. Kairi wobbled on the knee that was supporting her weight and leaned over to catch herself on the mirror but when her hand touched the glass it went straight through like passing through the surface of a calm, quiet pond.

* * *

 **A/N: it's a bit shorter than the last one. I did want to make it longer but then I had a personal dilemma: 'chapter much longer', or 'chapter on time' (as according to my arbitrary schedule). I went with chapter on time.**


	11. Ladies and Gentlemen

**Ladies and Gentlemen**

Kairi tumbled out on the other side, knocking the decorations off the mantelpiece and landing ungracefully on the floor. She leaped back to her feet in a hurry, once again shocked by a sudden and unexpected change of scene. She had thought the odd reflection might have indicated a hidden door but it had actually been a portal. In disbelief she looked around the room. From the inside it had a completely different atmosphere. There were the major changes but also several minor discrepancies, like the colours on the wallpaper being a slight shade darker to that in the original room, the carpet being plush rather than smooth, and the mouldings being carved with spades instead of flowers. A clock, that had only had its back visible in the mirror, had its arms ticking anti-clockwise instead of clockwise. She hastily whirled around to stare at the mirror but stepped on one of the decorations she had knocked over and tripped, hitting the floor with a heavy thud.

"Ow!" a little voice squeaked.

Kairi froze. She sat up and looked down at the floor around her feet where several of the marching band dolls had fallen and couldn't believe her eyes. The dolls were moving, rocking back and forth and trying to get up off the floor but with only so many joints and their hands permanently affixed to their instruments most of them weren't having much luck at all. The cymbalist that had ended up under her left foot waved his little arm frantically. Just the one. The other one had broken off.

"What the devil do you think you're doing?!" he reprimanded in his small, unintimidating voice.

"S… sorry?" Kairi said, leaning forward to pick him up. He squealed in protest, which Kairi paid no heed to, turning him around to get a better look at him even as he squirmed in her hand. "You mean to tell me they talk too?"

"I never meant to tell you a thing!" the cymbalist huffed. "But I will tell you one thing: you have made yourself out to be a clumsy, imbecilic oaf with all of your trampling. Don't you have any respect for the queen's sewing band?"

"A sewing band?" Kairi murmured, looking around the room. Despite all of the differences, it was still a sewing room.

"To keep the queen entertained while she embroiders. What use are we now, all scattered about like this? How am I going to play without my other hand?"

He flapped his remaining arm to demonstrate the utter uselessness of a single cymbal. Kairi hummed thoughtfully, picking up both the cymbalist and his broken arm and considering them. Then she merely snapped them back together. She held the cymbalist out at arm's length, giving a short nod of triumph at the wonky repair. That only lasted a second before the arm sadly dropped out of its socket.

"Goodness!"

Kairi looked up at Alice's exclamation. The girl climbed through the mirror much more gracefully than she had, clutching the frame for her support and carefully testing the height with one foot before sliding off the mantelpiece. She picked up a couple of the dolls scattered on the floor.

"It's a bit of a mess in here."

"And do you have any idea who is to blame?" shouted the flautist in Alice's hands. She gasped and dropped him in alarm.

Kairi chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah… my bad. Let's clean up a bit and then see if we can figure out where we've ended up now."

Alice nodded and picked up the flautist to put him back on the mantelpiece, then joined Kairi in picking all the decorations up off the floor and placing them back where they ought to be. The musicians were very particular about this, often loudly complaining that they had to be placed next to the correct band member lest their "harmonics" and "acoustics" be diminished. At the end, Kairi placed the cymbalist as a finishing touch, gently putting his arm back in place. It fell off with a quiet clatter.

"I'm sorry," she grinned sheepishly, trying to make light of the situation. "I can't fix it. But hey, maybe you'll get some time off work?"

"I never asked for time off work," the cymbalist complained.

Kairi shrugged apologetically. "I'm sure someone will fix you eventually but my friend and I have to go. We're looking for something important."

"We are?" Alice said, looking at Kairi with raised eyebrows.

"Yep," Kairi replied, turning on her heel with a determined focus. "We came here looking for the dragon, remember?"

"The dragon? Perhaps you did mention such a thing but I don't quite recall…"

Kairi and Alice left the sewing room, retracing their steps back through the manor. Just like the sewing room, the rest of the building differed only cosmetically from the manor they'd been in previously – different paint and wallpaper colours, different flower arrangements, different paintings with different frames to decorate their edges. The staircase that took them downstairs was curved with no landing instead of straight and there was no snow falling outside. However, when they reached the ballroom they found it empty. The door on the other side was wide open, inviting them to the bright, warm day outside. Kairi and Alice exchanged glances and walked towards it with measured steps, wary of what lay beyond but at the same time extremely curious.

They stepped into the beautiful weather onto a patio that was blindingly white. They had to squint against its glare but as their eyes adjusted to the brightness they began to observe the garden they'd entered. At the bottom of the stairs from the patio was a small round lawn ringed with flowering garden beds. Beyond the garden a tall, wild forest stood enigmatically. It was a much cosier size compared the garden at the previous manor but that didn't deter a small crowd of partygoers stepping semi-formally in time to the music, even though there was no ensemble or choir to be seen. Kairi marvelled at the flowing dresses and flapping tailcoats that smoothly swished and swayed like water.

"How odd!" Alice gasped, mouth dropping open with shock.

"What is?" Kairi asked, looking at her with a perplexed expression.

"All the gentlemen are wearing dresses and the ladies are wearing trousers!" she squealed but it wasn't with the kind of revulsion Aida had granted Kairi. Her mouth was agape with a mirthful grin. She laughed merrily.

She ran down the stairs, laughing all the way, before Kairi could reach out and stop her. Kairi watched in wonderment as she got to the bottom of the stairs and entered the crowd of dancers, twirling and weaving through them like she was naturally meant to be there. She followed suit, trying to keep an eye on the little girl in amongst the fluttering waves of people. Now that it had been pointed out, Kairi did notice that the ones in dresses had squared jaws and meticulously groomed facial hair while those in suits had soft chins and curved waists. As she crossed their dancefloor they adjusted their steps marginally to miss her by hairs, sometimes caressing her with the soft fabric of their clothes. They moved organically around each other, changing direction only whenever they were in danger of colliding with another pair or the flowerbeds unlike the formal party in the previous manor, where the dancers danced in rigid lines and geometric shapes that had lost their form the moment she entered their domain.

Towards the back of the lawn was a small, round table, attended to by four servants managing tea and snacks prepared from a trolley. Each of them was dressed in livery resembling the flamboyant gowns of the four women at the table. Golden crowns burdened their heads to demonstrate their status.

The women were so engaged with each other that they didn't notice the girls approaching. The bottom dropped out of Kairi's stomach when she recognised one of them: the fat and frog-mouthed Queen of Hearts dressed in a regal gown that was half red and half black. To her left sat another royal woman with a face that looked like it had been mechanically sharpened from the cheekbones to the rakish shape of her jaw. The excessively modest outfit of a white and blue dress under a draping black and blue robe with her head and neck completely covered gave her a frighteningly strict appearance. The next woman was the shortest but not the smallest by far. With a wide face and a double chin bulging over her frilly ruff, she was even fatter than the Queen of Hearts such that she needed two chairs to seat herself, one for each buttock. Her bright red and yellow gown seemed barely able to contain her flesh. The last woman was so thin her cheeks were hollow and her black and white dress with an exceedingly high collar absolutely swamped her. It was so impractically puffy that Kairi couldn't think of any reason to wear such a silly thing except to give the skinny lady a greater presence.

"You know I only say this for your own good, darling," the fat queen said, munching down several cookies at once, "but I say it was a good thing your tarts were stolen. Your girth is widening."

"Oh, I've noticed that too," said the thin queen, sounding like she was speaking through her long, pointed nose. "And you can't eat what you don't have to eat."

"It's not about consumption, it's about justice," the Queen of Hearts argued. "Those who steal should return what they stole and those who bake should eat what they make."

"Then you ought to catch that tart thief soon, although I doubt you will," replied the uptight queen. Her servant passed her a piece of pink cake on a plate and she looked down her nose at it in disgust as if it were a dead mouse. "Your court is as foolish as you are. You're always playing foolish games."

"Don't you ever play games?" asked the thin queen.

"Never."

"That's because you always lose," the Queen of Hearts retorted. "You're an idiot with no head for strategy."

"And you're a cheater with no heart for honesty." The uptight queen eventually decided to ignore her cake and took a sip from her teacup instead.

"I do too have a heart! They never managed to steal that in the end."

"Why, I can't imagine how dreadful it would be to have my heart stolen," said the fat queen, gulping down a whole cup of tea. "It's a pity they didn't succeed with you."

"Oh come now, you don't have to be so rude to each other," Alice interrupted, standing beside the table with her arms akimbo. The queens squealed and squawked in alarm, jumping so high out of their seats that they lifted the table off its legs as well. Kairi's eyes widened in disbelief as all of the crockery and cutlery fell gently back to the table surface with only quiet clinking.

"Good heavens! Who dares to frighten the suit queens?" the uptight woman fumed.

"It's that girl!" the Queen of Hearts shouted, pointing her heart-shaped sceptre at Alice. "She was the one who stole my heart!"

"I thought your heart wasn't stolen," said the thin queen.

"It wasn't and I didn't," Alice answered before the Queen of Hearts could get a word in. "There was evidence that cleared my name. And while I don't pity you for the terrible words you have to hear it is by no means a polite way to have a conversation."

"Ha! Listen to you!" the uptight queen barked. "You sound like the pretentious Queen of Proper trying to lecture on the proper ways of being the properest."

Alice folded her arms. "It's not pretentious at all to be nice."

"Not at all," Kairi interjected, startling the queens again. "Why would you need to be so mean all the time?"

"Because we need it, dearie," the thin queen answered. "After all, who better to remind you of your own faults than your sisters? And since they're family you can't possibly execute them for knowing you so well."

"Execute?" Alice and Kairi exclaimed in disbelief.

"It's true," the Queen of Hearts sighed glumly, slumping over the table and resting her cheek on her palm. "I can't possibly have my sisters' heads removed for speaking the truth but it's been like this ever since I declared it law that the suit queens should all be sisters. We used to have such enjoyable tea parties but now I have to meet with them because I'm obliged to."

"Wait, you mean they're not actually your sisters?" Kairi said incredulously.

"Of course they are!" the Queen of Hearts snapped, standing up suddenly and pointing her sceptre into Kairi's face. "The Queen of Spades, Queen of Diamonds and Queen of Clubs have all been legally registered as the sisters of the Queen of Hearts. Do you dare disrespect the law of the Court of Hearts?"

"Well, no, but you weren't born to the same parents, or adopted. You didn't have to be siblings if you didn't want to. Surely you could just…" Kairi paused, trying to find a proper word, "… _un-sister_ them?"

The Queen of Hearts gasped, her lips forming an 'o'-shape as the prospect of Kairi's suggestion started to dawn on her. "Good galloping galoshes! Why, you're absolutely right!"

She stood up and banged her sceptre on the table loudly, causing the crockery to clatter. "HERALD!" she screeched. "HERALD! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU BLASTED CREATURE!?"

"Coming!" a small, stressed voice responded. There were slight gasps of alarm whispering through the dancing crowd as something weaved under their garments on its way to the table. A white rabbit leaped out from under a frilly dress and hurried over to the Queen of Hearts, bowing deeply. "You called, your majesty?"

"Of course I did! Write this down, it's very important," the Queen of Hearts snapped. The white rabbit nodded, stuttering his affirmation as he took a scroll and a quill out of his jacket and poised them to scribe. She cleared her throat before continuing: "Let it be decreed, under the family law of the Court of Hearts, that the sisterhood of the suit queens has been utterly revoked. Under no circumstances can this law be circumvented or appealed. Motioned by the Queen of Hearts, carried without dissent, and effective IMMEDIATELY!"

She banged her sceptre on the table again. The white rabbit nodded as he furiously scribbled down the impromptu decree. Alice gaped at him.

"Look at that!" she gasped, tugging on Kairi's clothes and pointing to him. "It's him again! It's that white rabbit!"

"Of course he's a white rabbit," the Queen of Hearts sneered. "That much is obvious." She glared sharply at her servant. "Go on, then. Announce it!"

"Yes, your majesty!" the rabbit squeaked. He bowed low and then scurried back across the dancefloor to climb to the top of the stairs.

Once he was above the crowd he pulled out (impossibly, since there was nowhere on his clothes he could have stored it) a large trumpet to blare out a short royal fanfare. Hush silence fell over the garden and the dancers slowed their dancing to a graceful stop. Their dresses and tailcoats undulating like ripples as they broke away from their partners to turn to the herald. He put the trumpet away and then pulled out the scroll he had just scribed.

"Hear ye, hear ye!" he declared. He paused to clear his throat for dramatic effect before he continued: "It has been decreed, under the family law of the Court of Hearts, that the sisterhood of the suit queens has been utterly revoked. Under no circumstances can this law be circumvented or appealed. Motioned by the Queen of Hearts, carried without dissent and effective immediately."

The trumpet came out again for a concluding royal fanfare. The dancers exchanged glances but then just nodded and politely applauded, as if they expected nothing less. Kairi stared at the spectacle with her mouth agape as the music gradually started up again and the dancers bowed to their partners to begin their dances anew.

"Ha!" the Queen of Hearts smirked, turning to the other queens with a wicked gleam in her eye. "What do you think of me now, hm?"

"Why, I have never seen you in such excellent shape," said the gluttonous Queen of Diamonds.

"Why yes," the skinny Queen of Clubs agreed. "And your tarts are certainly the best I've ever tasted."

"I could never hope to best you at croquet," the uptight Queen of Spades conceded.

"That's more like it," the Queen of Hearts snorted, puffing her chest out smugly.

"What?" Kairi said, flabbergasted. "Just like that?"

"Just like that," the Queen of Hearts nodded. She turned to Kairi with a large and genteel smile on her frog-like lips. "Aren't you glad I thought of it? Un-sister them – isn't it obvious?"

Kairi leaned away from the queen's leering gaze, grimacing at the expression. "That's hardly fair."

"Nonsense!" the Queen of Spades snapped. "The Queen of Hearts is the fairest of them all."

"Surely you can't doubt the sincerity of such a gracious queen," the Queen of Clubs added.

"But it's not fair," Alice insisted, standing by Kairi. "You didn't even go to a courthouse like you're supposed to."

"'Supposed to'!" the Queen of Hearts guffawed, prompting all of the other queens to break into a fit of laughter and giggles. "Well, doesn't that just sound like something the Queen of Proper would say?"

"Why, I—!" Alice huffed, clenching her hands and going red in the face. Before she could explode Kairi plonked a hand on her shoulder.

"At this stage, I really doubt it's worth it," Kairi told her, shaking her head exasperatedly. "We should be going, don't you think?"

"Going where?" the Queen of Hearts demanded. "We're having a wonderful tea party right here. Why would you need to go anywhere?"

"If you _must_ know," Alice retorted in a childish tone, folding her arms contemptuously, "we're looking for a dragon."

"A dragon?" the Queen of Diamonds drawled, pouring herself three more cups of tea. "Why would you search for such a creature?"

"As silly as you silly little girls are, I'm sure that there will be a Queen of Dragons somewhere who can point you the right way," said the Queen of Spades. "But she's not here. She wasn't invited."

"Why can't _you_ just help us?" Kairi asked. "I mean, how common can dragons be? Or if you could tell us where we can find the Queen of Dragons that would be great too."

"You can't us expect us to know the whereabouts of every queen in Wonderland!" the Queen of Diamonds exclaimed.

Alice and Kairi exchanged puzzled glances. They turned back to the queens and Kairi raised an eyebrow. "How many queens are there?"

"Much much much too many to say," lamented the Queen of Clubs. Kairi and Alice exchanged those puzzled looks again.

"Well, regardless," Kairi pressed, "if you can't tell us where the Queen of Dragons is, do you at least know where we might find a black dragon that breathes purple lightning fire?"

The queens all gasped in horror and recoiled at the description, even the Queen of Hearts.

"With eyes of flame?" asked the Queen of Clubs.

"And jaws that bite?" the Queen of Diamonds added.

"And claws that snatch?" the Queen of Spades shrilled.

"And a whiffling, whuffling burble?" the Queen of Hearts hissed.

"Um… sure, I guess he has all of those," Kairi replied, brow furrowed in confusion, "but I'm not sure about that last one."

"You seek the Jabberwocky," the Queen of Hearts whispered as if saying that out aloud would bring misfortune should anybody hear it.

"I strongly advise against such foolishness," the Queen of Spades recommended.

"He's called Jabberwocky?" said Kairi. "I see. I get that he's probably dangerous and all—believe me, I know firsthand—but finding him is important to me. And you can't stop me from looking for him."

"Oh no! You can't!" the Queen of Clubs wailed, flapping her hands hysterically. "The Jabberwocky belongs to the Red Queen!"

"No he doesn't, I freed him."

"Liar!" accused the Queen of Hearts. "Nobody could free the Jabberwocky from such a vicious grip as hers. And lying in my presence is an offence punishable by death! Off with your head!"

She pointed her sceptre at Kairi, who blanched and covered her throat with both hands.

"Hold on a minute," Alice interrupted. "Instead of just killing her, why don't you tell her where the dragon is? If it's as vile as you say it will most likely seek to murder us."

"Wait! I'll just tell you where to find the Jabberwocky and then it will kill you!" the Queen of Hearts surmised gleefully. "What an excellent idea and much more entertaining than yet another beheading. I'm glad I thought of it. Very well then:

" _If you go into the Lily Forest  
You'll find a tulgey wood  
Where since the bruffin gorks did morrest  
The Tumtum tree hath stood. _

" _There is the meadow of brack and bright  
And the crobbish crown beyond detread.  
Vorpal whet in hand and sight  
Will keep your uffish head upstead_."

"You'd do well to remember that," the Queen of Hearts finished.

"Uh… sure," Kairi replied unsurely, counting what she thought were the landmarks on her fingers: "Lily Forest, tulgey wood, Tumtum tree, meadow of brack and bright… am I missing anything?"

"You forgot the Vorpal!" the Queen of Spade scolded, shaking her finger angrily. "You'll never make it alive if you forget that."

"The Vorpal?" Kairi echoed, tapping her chin in thought. The dragon had mentioned something 'Vorpal' himself and had seemed to be afraid of it. "Is that a weapon?"

"It's the only thing that will maim its wretched skin," the Queen of Diamonds explained.

"Right. And how do we get that?"

The queens burst into another fit of loud laughter at her question.

"Good luck, dearie. You'll have to ask the Red Queen to give it to you," the Queen of Clubs snickered.

"Then it will be off with your head for sure," the Queen of Hearts chortled. "Well, go on, then. You're not going to behead yourselves, now are you?"

She waved her sceptre at the garden behind the table and the plants miraculously moved. They pulled their own roots out of the ground to shuffled aside and make a path between them before digging down with their leaves to try to put their roots back in the ground. Alice and Kairi gawked at the plants in amazement.

"Right this way, madams," said one of the lilies in a high-pitched voice. It gestured to the new path with one of its leaves.

Alice gripped Kairi's hand uneasily. "Are you absolutely sure that we don't have any other choice in this matter?"

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Kairi told her. "In fact, you probably shouldn't. This Jabberwocky creature is very strong and very dangerous. It would be best if you went back to Aida."

Alice stuck out her tongue. "I couldn't stand the thought of that! And I certainly don't want to stay here," she grumbled, glaring at the queens with distaste. "At the very least I might help you negotiate with the Red Queen for the Vorpal."

"I hope so," Kairi gulped, giving Alice's hand a quick squeeze back.

They stepped up to the freshly turned soil of this new path and looked down its length. It disappeared into the dark forest within a few feet of its beginning. They held onto each other hand in hand as they began to walk down the soft path and the giggles and guffaws of the awful queens faded into the distance behind them.

* * *

 **A/N: Me at myself: EXCUSE ME! WHAT MONTH IS IT? *implodes in disgrace* I know it has been longer than 2 weeks. Forgive me T_T**

This world is terrible to try to get through because it's so easy to get distracted writing ridiculous things all the time. Also, why is Kairi letting Alice follow her into the forest? How about some responsibility?

(P.S.: there was a huge typo in the previous chapter and nobody let me know.)


	12. The Man With No Name

**The Man With No Name**

As Kairi and Alice walked there was another woman walking. She left the darkness of the forest and walked into an open meadow scattered with the craggy remains of old stone buildings. Tall stems topped with ball-shaped flowers swayed with the wind. There were so many of them that one could hardly see the purple grass beneath the waves of blossoms.

Aqua surveyed the meadow from the forest's edge, searching each blackened ruin with a careful gaze. Even with the full moon above, the person she was looking for would be hard to spot in the darkness but in the end it wasn't his form that gave him away. It was a light. An eerie light that didn't belong due to its artificiality. That light and the moonlight above cast a shine on his black coat.

Aqua ran straight towards him, kicking up flower petals in her wake like a trail. She hopped and jumped over the low ruins easily and gradually slowed to a stop at the ruined building he was sitting on the destroyed wall of. He had one of his strange devices out again, this time a disc that projected a hologram above it. The images and information in the hologram could be moved and manipulated with touches and gestures but Aqua hadn't been able to get the hang of it yet or many of his other devices for that matter.

"Did you find something?" she asked with a smile.

He made a gruff noise and nodded. Then he pointed to something on the ground. The stone floor of the building was cracked, worn with moss running over it and grass shooting up through the gaps but there were still visible marks forming pictures and runes.

"I see something new every day and I learn even more," he answered. "This place seems to have had a special connection to the moon." He looked up at the moon above the land with its heart-shaped desert visible from the ground. "Or perhaps it was another kind of moon…"

"You weren't in any trouble, were you?" Aqua inquired worriedly. If it had anything to do with hearts the Heartless were always bound to appear. It's why they always came to the Keyblade and why, if they weren't on their toes, they would eventually come to them.

He shook his head. "I was not. However, we should take leave of this place or the Heartless will surely convene." He began to close each of the items in his holograms, sending them back into the disc below.

"What about your memories? Did doing this research jog your recollection even a little bit?"

He shook his head again, this time with an essence of dejection. Aqua tried to keep smiling for him but she couldn't stop the sadness shining from her eyes. She still had no name to call him by. Despite all the time they had spent together he was still The Man With No Name.

"And how about you?" said The Man With No Name as the disc shut down. He leaned over to pick it up and then turned to her. "Did you find what you were looking for in the woods?"

"Kind of," she shrugged. "The Heartless appeared before I could find out too much but I managed to see that my castle hadn't fallen, despite Organisation XIII."

Organisation XIII, Castle Oblivion, a fake Kingdom Hearts – in the fragments of The Man With No Name's memory there were still key pieces that stood out like beacons but without intact memories he had no way of imparting their importance to her. She had to try to discover them by herself and piece by piece she was collecting a complete picture of the dangers that had come and passed while she was gone. The Nobodies, the Seeker of Darkness, the Seven Princesses of Heart – there were so many things she still didn't know.

"We have to find a way back to the Realm of Light. The worlds might need my key."

"I'm sure that is not so dire," The Man With No Name replied.

"Right…" Aqua sighed, looking up to the clear sky above and the stars that shone down from every dark world in this woebegone realm. "Sora… but I just can't help but feel like I need to help. Even if he's as great as you say he is, he's just one boy… like Ven."

The Man With No Name did not reply immediately, he just looked at her from within the abyss in his hood. His facelessness and formal manner of speech made it so difficult to discern what he was thinking or feeling in these moments of silence. Then he suddenly looked away, head tilting up so he could scan the tree line.

"I am sorry that I cannot be of more help to you," he said regretfully. "I am merely a splinter of an old man. But you are a Master of the Keyblade and adept in the field of magic, are you not? There is surely something you could do that you just haven't thought of yet."

Aqua looked away from him, holding her hands over her chest. "Haven't thought of? It's more like I'm afraid to try. Although I feel less afraid in the darkness now I need to be wary. I've seen what darkness does to people who recklessly open their heart to it."

"Are you not wary?" The Man With No Name asked. "Are you reckless?"

Aqua's lips tightened in an expression of annoyance. "You can't talk! Darkness is what brought you here—it made you what you are now. It's not something to be trifled with."

"I didn't mean to suggest that you would trifle with darkness. Rather the opposite. For a woman of high training and wisdom you have very little faith in your own judgement."

Aqua lowered her eyes, brow furrowed in contemplation. As she did she noticed an inky pool growing near their feet. "Look out!"

She tackled the man to the floor just in time to miss a Neoshadow's attempt to grab him and dig its claws in. It leaped out and lunged for them. In a flash, Aqua summoned her Keyblade and parried its initial blow. She slashed at its neck, powerful enough to sever it. That attack destabilised its body and it collapsed into nothing but dust and smoke. She glanced at the weapon in her hand and cursed. In her haste she didn't think to disguise her Keyblade.

Bug-like shadows crawled across the walls and floor, almost invisible in the darkness except for their bright yellow eyes. More Neoshadows emerged from dark pools and the devilish bat creatures materialised in mid-air, sniffing out the Keyblade's power like a predator to spilled blood.

Aqua dismissed the Keyblade and reached into her pocket for a pouch. She let the drawstrings loosen and tipped the broken Star Shard into her palm.

"Old man! Take my hand!" she ordered, reaching out to him with the Star Shard. He grunted and struggled to lift himself off the ground (he was, after all, quite old and although Aqua had saved him it had been quite a blow). His hand grasped hers around the Gummi. Aqua's magic thrummed through it and engulfed them both, shooting them away to some other world in this realm of darkness.

* * *

 **A/N: Hi everyone! So this chapter is super short this time around just so that you know that this is totally still happening even thought my two week schedule is still a hot mess right now. I had an internal debate with myself about posting this because I was initially going to have more but then I decided against it for two main reasons.** One was that I didn't want to extend the amount of time this story went without a chapter update and the second was that there is a pretty hard tone shift between what's happening here and the silliness that the story goes back to once the focus is back on Kairi and Alice in Wonderland.

Please review. It keeps me alive.


	13. A Queen for Every Way

**A Queen for Every Way**

It felt like Alice and Kairi had been walking for hours and all they had seen was more dark forest. The trees were all the same wherever they looked but the path didn't seem to go anywhere. Whenever they looked behind them it wound off into the darkness to somewhere unseen and when they turned back to the front it wound off ahead of them into the dark foliage before them. It brought Kairi to the worrying thought that perhaps they were going around in circles. A frigid breeze blew between the trees and both girls shivered violently as neither was well-dressed for bad weather.

"Oh, I hope it isn't going to snow here too," Alice moaned. She let go of Kairi's hand and sat down on the ground to slump against a tree. "How long do we need to walk through this forest? I'm tired and my feet hurt and now it's getting cold."

"I know," Kairi sighed, sitting down next to Alice since she had no better ideas of where to go from here. She pulled her knees up and folded her arms over them. "It doesn't really help that we have no idea where we are. Is this the Lily Forest or the tulgey wood?"

"I don't know. It all sounded like nonsense to me. This is probably all a cruel joke on us made up by those horrible suit queens."

Kairi lowered her head onto her arms. She didn't say it aloud for the sake of Alice's morale but it was starting to look like she was right. They'd been foolish to walk down this way. Neither of them knew their way around the world or even just this forest.

The air began to warm all of a sudden like sunlight bursting through the clouds. Kairi sighed, glad that at least it was warm again. Then Alice started to frantically tap her on the arm, forcing her to look up but she found that she had to squint. When had the forest gotten so bright?

"Look at that!" Alice exclaimed. "How did we get here?"

Kairi's eyes adjusted to the brightness eventually and then her eyebrows shot up in shock. All of a sudden there was a clearing in front of them with no grass but soft, lush moss covering the ground, rocks and roots in a plush blanket. The forest wasn't so thick anymore. Every tree had ample space to stand and they all had thick, gnarly trunks and little crooked branches yet the strangest part was how at the fork of the boughs for every tree was a pinched little face that appeared to be scrutinising everything. One tree stood apart from the rest, larger and older than them all. It branches trembled despite the absence of wind and every now and then an abrupt creak wracked its trunk like a cough.

At the base of this large tree two old ladies sat upon a white blanket with a simple picnic spread between them of tea, bread, butter, crackers and cheese. They were opposite each other in every way, not just the way they sat. The lady on the right was short, squat and pale with all of her hair and clothes in a mess. She wasn't even properly dressed – she had no skirt over her crinoline and she had apparently forgotten to replace her slippers with proper shoes before she left the house. In contrast, the lady on the left was tall, thin and dark with not a hairpin or button out of place. Her back was as straight and rigid as a board and her clothes were so creaseless Kairi and Alice believed they may have been ironed with her already inside them. The ladies kept on chatting between each other, paying no mind as Kairi and Alice approached. As they got closer, they took note of the fact that both ladies were wearing crowns and had a personalised sceptre lying at their knees.

"Pardon us, ladies," Alice interrupted politely. Despite such a subtle entry the queens both jumped right off the ground, throwing their tea up in the air and then catching it back in the cups as they came down.

"Goodness gracious!" the pale lady exclaimed.

"Oh my word!" cried the dark lady.

Kairi and Alice exchanged puzzled looks.

"Sorry to sneak up on you," Kairi said as the ladies covered their hearts with their free hand and caught their breath. "We're a little—no, actually we're _very_ lost. We need some help with directions."

"Well that's just fine," the dark lady said nonchalantly.

"Absolutely dandy," the pale lady agreed.

"How is that good?" Kairi asked, confused by those sentiments. "We're _lost_."

"You can't be found if you were never lost," the dark lady answered.

Kairi shook her head exasperatedly. More obnoxious people who spoke nothing but nonsense. "Never mind. It's a good thing we found you. We need to figure out where to go from here… and perhaps also find out where 'here' is… and how we even got here." She looked at the woods around them, searching for any trace of the previous forest but there was nothing left of it.

"How would we know how you came here?" asked the pale lady. "You're the ones who brought yourselves here—you should know that."

"That's the thing, see, we don't," Alice tried to explain. "We walked a very long time and got nowhere but then we sat down for a little while and suddenly we were here."

"Lovely tale," the pale lady said airily.

"Then that's how you got here," the dark lady said with finality. "See? You didn't need us to tell you at all."

"That's… not what we needed to hear," Kairi groaned. Before the ladies could interject again she added: "but can you please tell us where we are?"

"That's easy," the dark lady replied. "We're in the tulgey wood. It's the queastern-most side of the Lily Forest."

"What?!" Alice and Kairi exclaimed, throwing their hands up to smack their heads.

"We were there the whole time?!" Kairi shouted.

"Maybe that's a good thing," Alice rationalised, folding her arms and furrowing her brow as she thought. "It means that we were on the right track all along." She raised her eyes to look at the two ladies. "If you don't mind, um—oh, fiddlesticks! Where are my manners? We didn't introduce ourselves. My name is Alice and this is my friend, Kairi."

Alice gave a respectful curtsey, which Kairi mimicked. She smiled at the ladies. "Nice to meet you."

The dark lady scoffed in offence. "Why I never! It's rude to be polite, you know."

Kairi and Alice were so confused they just froze halfway to straightening up, speechless.

"If you really must know," the pale lady added. "I am the White Queen and this is my acquaintance, the Black Queen."

"I see," Kairi muttered, finally finding her voice. Both girls stood up straight. Neither of them was sure if it was proper to curtsey again or not, given how offended they seemed to be by good manners. "So, this place _is_ the tulgey wood…"

"Can't you tell?" asked the White Queen. "Everything is so tulgey."

"What even is 'tulgey'?"

"Tulgey is the quality of tulgey things," the Black Queen answered as if that should have been obvious. "This wood is full of tulgey trees with their tulgey branches, surrounded by tulgey moss and all of these little, tulgey rocks. It's a very tulgey place."

"Since this does appear to be the woods we're looking for," Alice said, "then the Tumtum tree must be quite close."

"Why, yes he is," said the White Queen. She patted one of the roots of the largest tree. "He's right here."

Kairi and Alice let their jaws drop. They stared up at the huge tree in disbelief. Kairi forced her jaw shut with a click of her teeth and sighed. "Okay. So we happened to somehow get a lot further along than we thought we had."

"He's been in poor health, the poor Tumtum," the White Queen moaned. "So we decided to keep him company in hopes that he'll feel better."

"It doesn't seem to be working," the Black Queen said, squinting at the tree as it creaked loudly. "I wonder what came over him."

"Perhaps he's coming down with a cold," suggested the White Queen.

"I've never heard of a tree coming down with a cold," Alice remarked.

"Well then you don't hear very well, do you? I just said that."

Alice turned to Kairi with a pout. "These queens are just as bad as those nasty suit queens."

"I suppose," Kairi murmured, turning to Alice and giving the women a side-eye. If they had overheard Alice's denunciation they didn't show it. "But we can't stand here arguing with them. We need to find out where this 'meadow of brack and bright' is so that we can get to the Red Queen."

A sudden, eerie hush whooshed through the entire forest. The Black and White queens gasped, actually spilling their tea this time.

"The Red Queen?" the Black Queen hissed.

"Why would you do such a mad thing?" the White Queen wailed.

Kairi squeezed her eyes shut and folded her arms in frustration. She opened them and looked at the women pointedly. "It's a really convoluted story. We came here looking for a dragon, which we found out was called the Jabberwocky, then we were told we had to go to the tulgey wood and find the Tumtum tree and then after that a meadow and somehow from there we go to the Red Queen and get something called the 'Vorpal'."

"Why, I've never heard of such lunacy!" exclaimed the Black Queen.

"Yeah, I know," Kairi sighed. "The suit queens were the same. But regardless of whether or not you think we're crazy, Alice and I are going to find the Jabberwocky. So you can either help us or you can not, up to you."

The Black and White Queens exchanged surprised glances, momentarily bewildered by the simple choice. Then, the White Queen slowly turned back to the two girls and said in a low voice:

"Well… I suppose it wouldn't do to send them off with nothing."

The Black Queen nodded, lips pressed into a hard line. "We may as well," she said tightly. "But mark our words, we will escort you no further than the meadow of brack and bright."

"Why not?" Alice asked.

"The Red Queen's castle is just beyond the meadow," explained the Black Queen. "I, for one, have no desire to lay eyes upon it."

"I concur," agreed the White Queen. "However, you can't just totter in all willy-nilly. We could help prepare you."

"Thank-you," Kairi replied excitedly, grinning now that they were making progress. "What do we have to do?"

The queens began to pack up their picnic. The Black Queen stuffed their bread and crackers into her crown and put it back on her head, then emptied the teacups and stuffed them into the bust of her dress. Then she took the teapot and shoved it up her bustle while the White Queen carefully placed all of the plates and saucers on her crown like a rack. She gave the picnic blanket a flick and then tied it over her crinoline like a messy skirt.

"The first thing you'll need to be aware of is that you can't just waltz into the Red Queen's castle," the Black Queen said. "Nor tango, nor foxtrot, nor any kind of dance really. The only people who can enter the castle are those who the Red Queen favours to be there."

"Or another queen," added the White Queen. "If you were queens you could go wherever you like and do whatever you want. So, to ensure you have the best chance of conquering the Red Queen and winning the Vorpal from her, you will have to become queens yourselves."

Alice and Kairi exchanged confused looks.

"Is that easy?" Kairi inquired.

"Not so much," the White Queen admitted.

"You'd have to be approved by another queen to become queens," said the Black Queen.

"Just as well, the two of us are such other queens!"

"But then what happens to you?" Alice wondered aloud. "I thought there was only supposed to be one queen. You wouldn't be the queens anymore if we became queens."

"Nonsense," the Black Queen snapped. "There will be as many queens as there are things to be queen of. And there are quite a lot of things so it stands to reason that there should be quite a lot of queens. "

"Onwards!" the White Queen declared, waving her sceptre in front of her. "To your crowns!"

Alice and Kairi couldn't help exchanging yet another puzzled expression but only briefly since the queens were already marching away into the wood. The girls jogged to catch up and fell in behind them. After a few steps Alice even started imitating the purposeful march the two queens were doing.

"If there really are as many queens as you say," Alice began out of curiosity, "then just how many are there?"

"Very many," the Black Queen answered vaguely.

"A great deal many!" the White Queen added. "We could tell you all about it."

"You should sing it. The woods might let us out faster if you do."

"Splendid idea! Music! Music! We need music!"

The White Queen waved her sceptre around in seemingly random arcs and circles. As it swung past trees and shrubs and flowers music really did start to play, increasing in parts like an orchestra with each section being called upon in turn. The Black Queen waved her sceptre like a conductor's baton as the White Queen began to sing in jolly alto notes:

" _There's a Queen of the Night, a Queen of the Day,  
A Queen of the Corn and a Queen of the Hay,  
A Queen of the Lawn and a Queen of Croquet.  
There is a queen for every way!_"

As she sang various flowers and shrubs from within the woods convened alongside their party, bobbing and swaying in time. Trees seemed to just slide out of their way and the smaller plants marched down the edges of the new path to make a joyous singing and dancing promenade. They chorused with the queens:

" _To make everyone happy  
A crown will give you sway.  
That's why we here are proud to say:  
There shall be a queen for every way!_"

"Oh, isn't it true?" the White Queen chortled. "But I recall even more than that, if you'd believe:

" _A Queen of the Rock and a Queen of the Roll,  
A Queen of the Dress and a Queen of the Doll,  
A Queen of the Scarf and a Queen of the Stole.  
Why, there is a queen in every role!_"

" _A Queen of the Bridge and a Queen of the Brook,_ " added the Black Queen.  
" _A Queen of the Sheep and a Queen of the Crook,  
A Queen of the Fish and a Queen of the Hook.  
A queen is required in every nook._"

The flowers chorused again: " _All the girls and ladies  
Who take us through the day  
Make us all here proud to say  
There shall be a queen for every way!_"

"That's a lot of random stuff," Kairi pointed out. The music didn't stop playing even as the queens turned to her questioningly. "There can't possibly be a queen for everything, can there? What else is there to be queen of?"

"Plenty, plenty!" exclaimed the queens.

"We haven't even scratched the surface," the Black Queen insisted. "I could go on:

" _There's a Queen of the Green and a Queen of the Blue,  
A Queen of the Boot and a Queen of the Shoe,  
A Queen of the Goop and a Queen of the Goo.  
There is a lot for a queen to do._"

The White Queen nodded. " _There's a Queen of the Post and a Queen of the News,  
A Queen of the Shades and a Queen of the Hues,  
A Queen of the Quest and a Queen of the Clues.  
You could be Queen of Whatever-You-Choose._"

" _A Queen of the Curd and a Queen of the Whey,_ " trilled the Black Queen.

" _A Queen of November and a Queen of May,_ " sang the White Queen.

" _And a Queen of Tomorrow and a Queen of Today,_ " chimed the plants.  
" _There shall be a queen for every day!_ "

"So when you say every day," Alice piped up, "do you mean _every_ day?"

"But of course," the Black Queen replied. "As well as the Queen of Tomorrow and Queen of Today there is the Queen of Yesterday, and the Day Before Yesterday…"

"… and the Day After Tomorrow," the White Queen reminded. "And there's the Queen of Monday, of Tuesday…"

"… of Two Days From Today, and of This Day Next Week…"

"… of Wednesday, of Thursday, of Friday…"

"… of This Day Last Week, of the First Day of the Month…"

"… of Saturday, of Sunday, and of the Sabbath."

"… of New Year's Day, of Old Year's Day and a Queen of The Unbirthday."

"That sure is a lot of days," Kairi said. "But what about the Queen of The Birthday?"

"Yes, there's her too," the Black Queen confirmed.

"What about a Queen of Christmas?" Alice asked excitedly. "And Christmas Eve? And Boxing Day? And Easter Sunday?"

"Yes, yes, yes and yes," said the White Queen. Kairi and Alice both laughed—it was too absurd not to. Without even realising it, Kairi's feet were skipping and the music guided her speech when she said:

" _So you wouldn't think it too silly or bizarre,  
For there to be Queens of Corsets or of Bras?_"

" _Or a Queen of the Loo or a Queen of the Lard?_ " Alice snickered.

" _Or even a Queen of the Fashion Faux Pas?_ "

Both girls laughed uproariously at their ridiculous suggestions but the Black Queen put her sceptre to her chin in thought.

"Hmm… actually, I don't recall there being a Queen of Fashion Faux Pas." She turned to Kairi. "Would you like to be the Queen of Fashion Faux Pas?"

Alice laughed as Kairi suddenly went red in the face and exclaimed: "No way!"

"HAAAAALLLT!" shouted the White Queen, stopping so abruptly that the Black Queen bumped into her. The music stumbled to a halt sounding like a circus falling down stairs.

"Fancy that. We're here already," the Black Queen remarked, righting her crown since it had fallen askew.

Kairi and Alice looked up to the path ahead of them. The makeshift road suddenly ended and they were at the neat, straight boarder of a large, lush meadow that stretched for miles. The grass was long but not too high and it swayed dreamily in a pleasant breeze that seemed to be crooning its own kind of song.

"This is it, then," the White Queen announced. "The meadow of brack and bright."

"It's very lovely," Alice commented. "This must be the bright part. So where is the brack?"

"Oh, you'll come across it," the Black Queen said offhandedly. "Now, we must prepare you for queendom."

The queens stood opposite the girls, the Black Queen across from Kairi and the White Queen across from Alice. The girls straightened their posture, anticipating the magic ceremony about to happen. The queens waved their sceptres high. The finials glowed with magic and with a swish the queens tossed that glittering power at Kairi and Alice. They both blinked as it blew into their faces and swirled around them until suddenly there was a big _poof_. More glitter rained over them and they both felt the solid weight of something gently coming to rest of their heads.

With a grin, Kairi reached up and took the headwear off to examine it, expecting a gorgeous crown. Her face fell when instead she found herself looking at a knight's helmet. The visor on Alice's slipped over her face with a loud _clank_.

"Is this a joke?" Kairi asked angrily, glaring at the queens. Alice struggled to raise the visor back to its upright position. "You said you'd make us queens."

"We can't just _make_ you a queen," the Black Queen drawled. "You have to earn it like everybody else."

"Then what are we now?"

"Pawns, naturally," answered the White Queen.

" _Pawns_?!" Kairi exclaimed in offence.

"Yes, pawns! And now that you have your helmets you've made the first step to becoming queens."

"Step into the meadow," the Black Queen instructed, gesturing to it with her sceptre, "to begin your quest for queenhood. With courage, wit and strength you shall have your crowns by the time you reach the Red Queen's castle."

"And if we haven't?" Alice wondered aloud, peeking under the visor that she had to hold up.

"Best hope that you do."

Alice and Kairi exchanged nervous glances and gulped. As one, they turned towards the meadow. The queens had both stepped aside like guards granting them passage. The meadow seemed to go on forever – they couldn't even see a tower or spire indicating a castle. The flowers, shrubs and trees had closed in behind them, watching expectantly. In getting this far there was no way to turn back so, as one, Kairi and Alice walked purposefully onto the grassy meadow.

* * *

 **A/N: Choo-choo chugga-chugga choo-choo! Here comes the hiatus train, to drop off chapter 13 and pick up chapter 14. Please do review, it might make the hiatus train break down and that will be better for everyone (including me).**


	14. The Meadow of Brack and Bright

**The Meadow of Brack and Bright**

Just like the forest, the meadow seemed to have no end or beginning. The tulgey wood faded away behind them and before them there was nothing but grass and flowers and insects buzzing in the humming breeze.

"We're getting nowhere again," Kairi muttered with exasperation. She stopped suddenly in the middle of the field and Alice stopped with her, looking up questioningly.

"It does seem that way, doesn't it?" she said. She looked around but there was nothing new on the horizon. "There isn't even a hill or a corner for something to be just around."

Kairi hummed thoughtfully. Thinking of it, the situation so far felt vaguely familiar in a way – like she'd read about it somewhere. Then she clicked her fingers as she remembered what she was reminded of. She took her backpack off and sat down to rummage through it until she found the old journal she'd picked up in Radiant Garden.

"What's that?" Alice asked, crouching down to look over Kairi's shoulder.

"It's an old diary I found but I've only read the first entry. The writer said something about being in a similar situation—stuck in a forest that they couldn't get out of. Maybe another entry has a clue."

"Isn't it a bit rude to read other people's diaries without permission?"

"Look how old it is; the person who wrote this is probably long dead."

Alice conceded the point and settled down next to Kairi as she began to read the next entry:

 _It appears that night and day still exist in this place as they always have. That gives me some hope. I now know that there is a yesterday to look back on and a tomorrow to look forward to. For today, my goal has not changed. I must find a way out of this forest and discover what has become of the rest of the world if there is anything left of it. I've more wits about me now and at the very least it is peaceful here. That in itself is strange. It's as if the war never happened._ _I still remember such vivid, violent sounds, sights and smells. I could hardly sleep for fear that I would dream of them exactly as they were before they seemed to all vanish in the bli_

 _I shan't dwell on such things. If I were to become rooted in the past then I would not be able to walk on into the future but at the same time I cannot forget it because if I did there would be no path to the future. For now I will simply stare at the present and look for clues that will piece together the broken past and unwritten future._

What followed was a list of observations about the forest that for Kairi and Alice's sake were meaningless. The description matched that of a regular forest, not a Wonderland environment like the one they were currently stuck in. Kairi dropped the book on her chest and flopped onto her back with an exasperated groan.

"That didn't help at all," Alice pouted.

Kairi kept quiet but she did agree with Alice. Their situation and the writer's situation really were different and it seemed for the moment that there was absolutely no way out of either. _"Come on, think!"_ she urged herself. _"Zexion said you were smart, girl, so think outside the box. How are we going to get out of here?"_

Looking up at the bright blue daytime sky, a thought suddenly occurred to her that made her eyes widen. "Yesterday, today and tomorrow," she whispered.

"Beg your pardon?" Alice said.

"Yesterday, today and tomorrow," Kairi repeated. "The present follows the past and the past is the path to the future. How did we get around in this world before?"

Alice hummed as she thought. "Well, every time we got somewhere new it was because something odd happened, wasn't it? We went through a looking glass, the suit queens opened the forest for us, then we stayed still for a little while and got very far, and then after that the other queens sang us a song while we were getting out of the wood."

Kairi's brow furrowed. She couldn't work out how to fit the mirror in but her mind was starting to piece together a plan that was just mad enough to work in this mad world.

"Then maybe we should sing too."

Alice held up her visor to stare at her questioningly. The breeze seemed to giggle excitedly and picked up briefly around them.

"The queens let us in, then we didn't move, then we sang. The queens have already let us in, we're not moving right now, so if we just stay here and sing maybe we'll just end up where we want to go."

Alice let the visor drop and rested her chin in her palm to think. "But then what should we sing? I hate recitals. I'm always afraid I'll get it wrong."

"I don't think it has to be a recital… though I don't know what to sing either."

Alice pushed her dress down against the wind. They were silent for a while but the air tittered and trilled. It made a tune of its own that Alice and Kairi both began to hum along to until Alice finally managed to push her helmet visor high enough that it would stay by itself. She looked across the unending grass and sung to the horizon:

" _O, meadow where do you go?  
Isn't there a thing that you want to show?  
O, meadow what do you know?  
Have you seen the winter? Have you seen the snow?"_

Sudden they both jerked as the wind lifted them off the ground and threw them at least three metres from where they once were. Kairi sat up (having landed face first) and grinned. The breeze sounded like a chorus now, chanting Alice's melody over and over again in delight. Kairi picked up her book and backpack and stowed them properly.

"It worked!"

"It did!" Alice beamed, having to adjust her visor again. She looked about and then frowned. "But we haven't gotten very far."

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that if we keep doing it we should get somewhere.

" _O, meadow of brack and bright  
What do you look like when it turns to night?"_

The wind lifted them off the ground again and carried them off but Kairi kept on singing to it:

" _O, meadow, what a delight  
Seeing all your colours bathing in the light._

" _Have you seen the seasons,  
The warmest and the cold?  
Do you see the shiny stars?  
Are you just as old?  
Have you seen a tree  
Or an ocean or a stream?  
Do you have your very own dreams?"_

The ground rushed beneath their feet and the wind gusted ever faster but all they heard in their ears was music. They were starting to go so fast that the surroundings blurred and they had to shut their eyes to keep the stinging wind out. Alice and Kairi joined hands to stay together and finished in unison:

" _O, meadow where do you go?  
Isn't there a thing that you want to show?  
O, meadow what do you know?  
Have you seen the winter? Have you seen the snow?"_

The wind slowed but it didn't drop them like before. It gently whirled them around to slow their descent like falling petals and placed them gently on the ground. The grass crunched beneath their feet. Not a pleasant sound to hear. The girls opened their eyes now that the air was still and their stomachs dropped at the sight before them.

The meadow in front of them was nothing like the meadow behind them. The grass was dull, dry and brittle. Bare patches of dirt frequently stood out between them, as well as thickets of thorns and nettles. The sky was a greyer shade of blue and the air was completely silent. They looked behind them. The beautiful meadow receded away like a tide being sucked out to sea before a tsunami. Alice and Kairi exchanged glances and then turned to the dreary meadow before them.

"This must be the brack part," Alice said to break the silence but the sound deadened almost immediately after she said it. "It doesn't even echo."

"I have a feeling that songs aren't going to work anymore," Kairi moaned.

"Then how do we move forwards?"

Before Kairi could think of an answer a rumbling growl reverberated through the meadow. The ground quaked and the plants quivered at the sound. Snaps, cracks, and whacks followed the growl as something moved quickly through the thickets, sending up broken twigs, thorns and dead leaves in its wake. Kairi and Alice looked at each other fearfully.

"Perhaps that's how we move forward," Kairi guessed in dread.

"Well, it is the only unusual thing that's happened since we got here," Alice conceded, looking over her shoulder, "and goodness knows there's no way to go back."

"There never is in this world." Kairi took Alice's hand tightly in hers and summoned the Lightwick. "Stay close to me. If that thing is something we have to fight, I'll do my best to protect you."

Alice nodded nervously and then they both crept into the meadow, following the awful animal sounds.

* * *

Darkness peeled away and left Zexion standing in a white courtyard with red banners striping the stone walls. It was warm and a little humid. A balcony looked over the yard, offering a generous view of an execution block that was positioned over a well with a foul smell emanating from it. Zexion scrunched his nose in disgust but the stagnant air in the courtyard meant there was no way to get downwind of it. However, he wasn't relying on physical smell right now and tried to put it out of his mind as he took a deep breath through his nose.

The world's scent was sweet. Sweet despite his current location and the dark scents he detected around him. There was more light in this world than usual – or, more specifically, more Princesses of Heart than usual. So he surmised that it was likely Kairi had come to this world. Although that made things a bit trickier. With two Princesses around, how would he pinpoint the one he was looking for?

While he was sniffing and thinking about how to navigate the issue, the courtyard became abuzz with activity. Large gates opened and a large crowd streamed in, filling the space around the execution block. Soldiers that appeared to be little more than giant toys entered from a smaller gate on the other side of the courtyard, bellowing for the crowd to make way and dragging on a rope behind them a beautiful porcelain doll that was wailing and crying like a child. A great, big, fluffy teddy bear with an axe ambled up to the execution block and waited beside it until the doll was brought to it.

Zexion turned his head, simply confused by the suddenness of it all and then looked up to the balcony. It filled at a slower rate. Courtiers filed in steadily and kept the doorway clear. The last to enter appeared as nothing more than a very tall, red hairdo with a crown perched upon it. It bobbed along to the edge of the balcony and waited until a tall-legged, high-backed chair was brought. The hair ascended to the chair, revealing a very small woman with a very large head like an overinflated balloon who now had the best view in the house.

"I love a good execution in the morning," was all she said as a way of an opening. "Get on with it!"

Zexion watched in bemusement as the toy soldiers forced the doll to kneel over the block. The bear mechanically lifted it axe. The doll's watery weeping echoed back up well as the crowd jeered. Then the axe came down like a guillotine. It lobbed off the doll's head and it came apart from her body with a _pop_. Then there were three tense seconds of baited breath before a splash from the bottom of the well. The crowd cheered and the woman sitting up on the balcony laughed and clapped her hands like a little girl.

"Yes! That's what you get!" she shrieked. "That's what you get! There will be no such impropriety in the Court of the Red Queen!"

She grinned down at her subjects, who were still in an uproar. Then her smile fell. She pointed down to the crowd and screamed: "WHO IS THAT!?"

The crowd was silenced in an instant, although Zexion wasn't sure that they were sincerely cheering. They were all stiff-faced and glassy-eyed and they moved and responded with such clinical precision that he had some doubts as to whether they were even real. All of those dead eyes turned to him and the crowd stepped back to single him out. He looked up at the balcony. Figures. The queen was pointing straight at him.

"SUCH BEAUTY DARES TO TRESPASS UPON MY KINGDOM?! YOUR HORRIDLY CLEAR SKIN AND DISGUSTINGLY WELL-PROPORTIONED FEATURES OFFEND ME! OFF WITH HIS HEAD!"

* * *

 **A/N: update before I go on holiday. Whatever you celebrate, I hope it's a good one. :)**


	15. Beware the Bandersnatch

**Beware the Bandersnatch**

The nettles and thorns only got thicker and thicker as Alice and Kairi tried to follow the growling beast. They had yet to catch sight of it but neither of them had any doubt that they were following something truly terrible in light of what it left behind it. As the foliage got thicker and taller the only way they could track it was by walking along the broken branches and trampled nettles it left in its wake. The deeper they went the darker it got and the bushes towered over them like jagged trees. Just as Kairi began to think that they had entered yet another never-ending forest the pair came across an enormous boulder with a large cave cut cleanly into the front of it. The cave angled downwards into a tunnel and disappeared into dark obscurity.

They peeked inside and the beast's growl echoed up to them. They glanced at each other, both too afraid to make a sound lest their voices be carried down to the beast. Alice looked around. She spied a stick torn from a thorn bush with the thorns mostly broken off on one side and picked it up. Then she turned to Kairi and nodded.

Together they entered the cave. The light didn't go far and before long they were already walking in the dark. A rocky floor and steep road made for a difficult path. The Keyblade magically glowed of its own accord but the light didn't spread far. Then at the bottom of the path the ground flattened out into a great cavern. The high walls echoed the roar of the beast so much that it never seemed to end.

Alice suddenly clutched Kairi's arm. "Ooh, it sounds like it's surrounding us," she said in a quivering voice.

Kairi lifted the Keyblade, waving it too and fro and hoping for the light to reach a little farther. There! Off to the right there was a cascade of movement. Kairi crept towards it, dragging Alice along with her, only to pause at the edge. There was no beast. In front of them was a series of waterfalls and rapids gushing from the ceiling to the floor and into an adjoining tunnel.

"This is it?" Kairi sighed in frustration. "That noise we were following was just water all along?"

"That can't be," Alice thought aloud. "If that was the case, then what made all that mess we were following?"

A breath of warm air puffed out from behind them. The girls froze as their clothes ruffled in the moist wind. With a deep, terrified breath, they both turned on the spot just as a pair of large, clawed hands reached towards them from the darkness.

Kairi jumped back, grasping the Keyblade in both hands to bat the claws away. They sparked as they collided. Alice wasn't so quick and the other hand grasped her whole body and dragged her screaming into the darkness.

"Alice!" Kairi screamed, running forwards to find the beast. It roared loudly, filling her ears as though it was everywhere. It had to be in front of her, she believed, until she suddenly came upon the cavern wall. She stared at it in bewilderment. "How...?"

Alice screamed again. The sound bounced off the rounded walls, masking the direction it came from. Kairi turned around with Lightwick in front of her, staring down the dark. A pair of red jaundiced eyes appeared in the dark, floating as a pair but seemingly attached to nothing. The clawed hand came out of the dark again. Kairi rolled to dodge it and then ran forward wildly swinging her Keyblade in hopes that it would hit something. It sliced through thin air time and time again until she almost slipped on the edge of the stream. She stared at it hopelessly. How could she have missed the creature that time?

Kairi turned around. The monster's hot breath blew at her from gaping jaws ringed with fangs and a wet, pink tongue coming towards her. Kairi dropped and rolled just under the jaws as they snapped shut and flicked drops of saliva over her. It pulled back and Kairi thrust the Keyblade up into its chin. Finally, a hit. The flesh cut and the creature howled, drawing back into the darkness faster. She sat up and looked at the creature in shock, wondering how. The face that had been slowly appearing faded back to black completely.

"It disappears," she gasped in realisation.

Kairi pulled herself back on her feet and held the Keyblade in front of her. With a wide stance she waited, staying on her toes for any sign of the beast reappearing. Another scream from Alice and a growl nearly threw her off guard as the beast's hand opened up in front of her like a trap ready to snap. Instead of dodging it, Kairi swung her Keyblade onto the claws in a parrying strike. The beast yelped and flinched, during which the palm was open. Kairi thrust the Keyblade right into the middle. Another howl and the hand drew back, disappearing back into nothing. Almost immediately it tried to make another grab for her and the same tactic worked.

"I guess it's not so smart," Kairi chuckled, just before the hand came for her again.

This time the hand didn't pull back all the way. It flickered in and out of vision and then zoomed back towards her fully flexed. She prepared to hit it right in the middle again but the hand suddenly shot up, palm facing down. Her eyes followed it, quickly realising what it was about to do. She leaped to avoid being crushed under its hand but the sheer force of it blew her away. She landed right at the edge of the stream. The fast-running water screamed in her ear. If she fell in it would surely drag her away and then she'd probably never save Alice. The hand reached out to snatch her again. She scrambled to her feet and ran upstream until she finally found a wall to put behind her and then she waited.

It returned just as she thought it would; it didn't have any strategies other than trying to grab her in some way, apparently. She parried, then struck. More annoyed this time than hurt, it tried to slam her again but she was ready for it. She scurried out of the way, jumped to avoid the shockwave and brought her Keyblade down hard on the back of its hand. It quickly retracted.

The pearly fangs reappeared, completely disembodied. They opened wide as they came towards her. Kairi bided until it was upon her and back-stepped to avoid the chomp. Even then, she assaulted the teeth as much as she could. Anyone who had teeth would know that even they can hurt and they must have because the beast retreated again. It made another attempt with its hand but this time Kairi was ready for what she thought was everything it could throw at her. When it came head on, she parried and struck the palm. When it tried to squash her, she dodged and hacked from the top. It even tried to blindside her by going for a side swipe but coming from the side was no different from head on. Yet, as many times as Kairi was able to best it, frustration built up over the one thing she still had no idea of.

"Bring Alice back, you stupid animal!" she growled at it, frantically getting as many hits as she could into the hand that had tried to come from the side.

She swung Lightwick over her head to build momentum for a heavy sideways slash that wedged the teeth deeply into its wrist. The high pitched squeal that came from the beast echoed painfully, feeling like needles piercing Kairi's eardrums. Then its hand went limp.

Kairi stared at it warily. It didn't move nor did it disappear. She poked at it with the Keyblade but nothing happened. She was so busy wondering if this was a new kind of trick that she didn't notice the fangs were about to close on her until a wave of hot breath blew over her. It was such a narrow dodge that Kairi felt the pressure of the teeth clicking shut. They pulled back with a snarl and the eyes reappeared over them with a flat, wet nose between. Then its left hand slowly reappeared with Alice still held tightly in its grasp.

Kairi scrambled to her feet. Now if only she could figure out how she was going to force the beast to let Alice go. The teeth came back at her as though they were completely detached. She smashed the Keyblade against the fangs with the intent to crack and chip. The beast yowled and its tongue lolled out. Kairi took the chance to hack and slash at that too. It quickly retreated, leaving its sore tongue hanging out limply. With no other option left, it reached out with its other hand and slammed its fist over Kairi. She rolled out of the way and then jumped to her feet to turn back.

"Kairi!" Alice cried out.

"Don't worry!" Kairi replied, charging for the monster's wrist. "I'm getting you out of there!"

She swung the Keyblade at its defenceless wrist. Despite eliciting a howl of pain, it didn't let go. Its grip only tightened if Alice's squeal was anything to go by. Searching for a solution, Kairi steeled her nerves and slashed the toothed side of the Keyblade along the fingers. Alice cried but it was small noise of alarm, not expecting an ally weapon to come so close. She started to struggle, finding more room to wiggle her arms back and forth. Kairi whacked its knuckles again then went for a third shot but the monster retracted. It glowered at her from the dark, holding her friend out of reach. Even if Kairi were to get closer she couldn't jump that high and she had no idea if the creature had any more tricks to play.

It did indeed. A thick tail lashed out like a whip and struck her in the face, knocking her off her feet. It curled back much slower and disappeared just like other body parts had. Then it swiftly reappeared. Kairi was barely able to dodge after being disoriented by the strike to her face. The third time she tried to chase it down to hit it but it coiled out of reach and swept her legs out from under her. The tail rose to slam her. She had to roll constantly to the side to avoid a beating. As she did, she watched it as much as she could, wondering if there was some way to attack. An idea struck and she stopped. Staying on the ground, she held the Keyblade up to block the tail. It slammed so hard her elbows hit the floor. The beast lifted and then Kairi struck, getting a hit in while it expected to have a sitting duck target. She hopped back to her feet and turned around, putting in a few more hits while it was smarting. It pulled away but darted back out to sweep her legs. This time, she was ready to jump over it.

Kairi and the beast were so distracted by each other that neither paid any mind to Alice struggling within its calloused hand. With its hand hurt the grip was looser and she could hopefully pull her right arm free. She got her elbow up above the fingers, putting her shoulder at an awkward angle. Thorns scratched and snagged her dress but she had gotten this far so she had to keep going. She wiggled her forearm out of the beast's grasp and then she was home free. With one almighty pull she yanked her hand free. The harsh sound of fabric ripping orchestrated her thorny stick following after like a ribbon. More of the spikes were missing or broken now but there were enough left to do some damage. She looked to the face of the beast, or rather the features of its incomplete face floating in the dark. The eyes were focussed intensely on the fight with the redhead, so they didn't notice when Alice pulled her arm across her front and then whipped the thorned stick into the left eye.

The monster screamed. It dropped Alice to cover its eye with its least injured hand. Kairi saw this and made a dash to save her. She only managed to dive under the younger girl break her fall rather than catch her. The two girls scrambled to their feet to face it before it could retaliate. However, the beast merely howled pitifully and every piece of it faded into nothing. Kairi and Alice stood beside each other with their weapons up, thinking that it might rematerialise but a minute ticked by and then another. Even the sounds it made had completely disappeared. There was nothing left in the cave but their adrenalin-high panting and the whoosh of water tumbling behind them.

"Are you okay?" Kairi asked, finally believing that it was safe to look her way. Alice looked back at her and Kairi took in her trembling arms, frightened eyes, and the sorry state of her dress with a huge tear from hem to hip. She put an arm around Alice's shoulders to keep her grounded, wondering what she could say that wouldn't rattle her any further. "Oh no! Your pretty dress..."

Alice glanced at the rip. She fiddled with it sadly. "Ada is going to be rather cross."

"I imagine she would," Kairi agreed.

There was a loud splash in the stream. The girls turned to it and swung their weapons around just in case it was another monster. Instead they saw a small gondola bobbing off the rapids running into the cave and gliding to the edge of the water. Despite the current it stopped right in front of them as though to invite them in. On the cushions of its seats lay two new helmets adorned with a crown-like feature similar to the castellation of a fortress tower. They exchanged glances and then picked them up. Their heads suddenly felt lighter and a light veil of glitter fell over their eyes as their pawn helmets dissolved and the rook helmets faded from their hands to replace the pawn helmets.

"What does this mean?" Kairi wondered, looking up as though she would see the new helmet over her brow.

"I believe we've gained a rank," Alice answered, feeling the tall headwear. "If we were pawns before then now we must be rooks. That means we can move as many spaces as we want in a straight line."

"Huh?" Kairi muttered, giving Alice a confused look. "How does that...?"

"I don't know. That's just what I know about the rook, other than that you can also use it to swap places with the king."

Kairi just nodded. She didn't even know that much about chess and probably would never need to, seeing as how she didn't play. The gondola continued to wait for them, tapping its hull against the shore as if it were impatient for them to embark. Kairi put her hands on her hips and hummed thoughtfully.

"Think we should get on?" she asked.

"I think it would be lovelier to float downstream on a gondola," Alice said, "instead of hiking through those awful thorns again."

"Touché."

Kairi and Alice stepped into the boat and sat down on the finely upholstered seat. Despite no gondolier or oar, the boat smoothly pushed back out into the main current of the stream. Kairi kept the Keyblade out for light and the girls watched apprehensively as the boat sailed into the narrow adjoining tunnel through which they could only see darkness ahead.

* * *

 **A/N: Choo-choo! The hiatus train has returned! Sorry about the 12 months of nothing. That's really all I've got to say for myself. Blocks are a bitch. Please help me out by reviewing pretty please.**


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